


The Walking Dead - Where Did Yesterday Go

by Sandman91



Category: The Walking Dead (Comics)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 04:06:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 61,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6179569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandman91/pseuds/Sandman91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron Reese has spent the last eight years of his life as a member of one of Albany, New York's most elite SWAT Teams and it has exposed him to the lowest and most dangerous forms of human beings the world has to offer. But when the dead started walking he, just like everyone else found himself not knowing what to do. When the Military Safe Zone around Albany collapsed to the hordes of undead walking the streets, Aaron and his team were lucky enough to escape the feeding frenzy. Now they have to employ every facet of their training to push towards the outer limits of the city, they will encounter other survivors. They will find out that the living may not be as human as they appear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: Procurement

Author’s Note:  
  
This story will focus primarily on original characters. It was a choice I made because I feel the world that the Walking Dead has created is something that hasn’t really been explored outside of Daryl Dixon/OC pairings and the state of Georgia, which is all good I’m as much a Daryl fan as anybody else. There will be characters from the show in this story, but they will appear later on. I have created quite a storyline for this fic, it is my first TWD story so I have taken quite a while getting everything just right.

 

## Chapter One: Procurement

 

**Albany, New York**  
**One month after the Military Safe Zone Collapse**

  
  
It wasn’t the smell of rotting flesh or the sight of entrails hanging from punctured abdomens that bothered Aaron Reese, it was actually the moaning that got to him. It was the soft, guttural sounds that sent his skin crawling. It was a sickening sound that was as unnatural as anything he had heard.  
  
Judging by the amount of gurgling moans there must have been eight or nine of the bastards scrambling around the remains of the military checkpoint around the corner. He moved quickly, picking his footsteps carefully to avoid stepping on any loose debris or anything that would make the slightest sound and attract the biters. He hugged the edge of the building and wrapped his fingers around the grip of his rifle as the distance between him and the intersection shortened with every step. He came to a stop and slowly lowered himself into a crouch a few inches away from the corner of the building. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a shard of glass that was heavily taped around the edges. Aaron inched the piece of glass around the edge of the building to get an idea of how many biters he was actually dealing with.  
  
It wasn’t fool proof but it was the best thing he had at hand short of stepping out and risking being seen by the blood thirsty corpses. He carefully angled the piece of glass and tried to ignore the increasingly foul stench as it climbed down into the back of his throat threatening to make him gag. His initial guess of eight seemed to be correct. All of the biters were wearing military fatigues or riot gear that the police force had been wearing. That fact no longer bothered him.  
  
They weren’t soldiers or cops anymore they were just one more threat he had to deal with, threats that were also walking ammo caches. He could hear them kicking around some of the rifles that had been dropped when the checkpoint had been overrun and at least some of the military personnel here had been armed with side arms of some sort. Aaron's group had put together quite the arsenal since the safe zone around the city had fallen to the biters, most of it acquired through the cleansing and scavenging of military checkpoints just like this one.  
Aaron had been lucky in that regard. He had been part of a SWAT team when the city went to shit and most of that team was still intact. Only two people had died and that had been during the collapse of the safe zone nearly a month earlier. He missed Sam and Jonah but he still had Mendoza and Billy and James. They knew how to move without being seen or heard and those were traits that were going to become useful in the new world. There was only one person he wasn’t so sure about.  
  
Dillon Mane had joined their team a week or so after the collapse of the safe zone. Aaron and his SWAT team had found him holed up in a checkpoint, the lone survivor from his Ranger team. Aaron's team leader, James Walden, was quick to jump at the chance to have an Army Ranger as part of their group. Aaron knew Rangers were tough, they had to be in order to live up to the reputation of the unit. It had been Army Rangers that had stormed the beaches of Normandy and the cliffs and Pointe Du Hoc on D-Day. The way Dillon carried himself, it was obvious he was very intent on living up to the Ranger reputation.  
  
Aaron' SWAT team however, was not a highly decorated military unit, just a close-knit family of highly-trained police officer who had worked together for years. The most dangerous job they had ever conducted had been a hostage situation in a housing project.  
Dillon was an unknown and had the potential to upset the well oiled machine that Aaron and the rest of his team were.  
  
Dillon quickly showed what he could contribute to the group by leading the SWAT team to a metal shop, via rooftops, that he had secured the previous day. The doors were all welded shut and solid steel plates had been welded over them for added reinforcement. He had even covered the walls in soundproofing so he could work without alerting the biters. It was what Dillon had been working on that had impressed the four SWAT officers.  
Silencers.  
  
Dillon had stockpiled a small arsenal himself in the week after the collapse that included: four M4 Carbines equipped with tactical scopes, six standard issue Beretta M9 9mm side arms complete with spare ammunition clips and five K-Bar combat knives. Aaron and his group had managed to gather some military grade rifles to complement their law enforcement AR-15s, mostly the same kind of M4 rifles that Dillon had. The SWAT team only had four pistols between them, their standard issue SIG P26 9mm side arms. In total between Dillon and Aaron's group there were twenty-two guns. Dillon had more than enough silencers to go around.  
  
They were even more impressed with Dillon when they attached the silencers to their weapons and found that the devices actually worked properly. For the first time since the whole city had gone to hell Aaron felt a genuine smile on his face. The fact that they could move around and use their weapons without attracting mass amounts of biters, their weapons still made enough noise to draw local biters but not enough to draw biters from blocks away. It was amazing how sound could travel when there wasn’t any background noise to wash it out.  
Aaron slowly pulled the shard of glass back towards him and carefully backed away from the corner before turning on the balls of his feet and jogging back the way he had came. The group was holed up in a convenience store less than a block away. For a moment Aaron was worried that Mendoza would mistake him for a biter and put a shot through his skull, as John Mendoza was one of the finest shots that Aaron had ever seen and it didn’t matter what weapon he was using. The thought vanished as quickly as it appeared, he was moving to quick to be mistaken as a biter. Still he approached the store with some caution.  
  
He came to a halt at the intersection and stuck his head out peering up and down the road looking for biters and only found the innate bodies of the recently reanimated dead with pools of red-black muck congealing around the backs of their heads. Those bodies hadn’t been there when he had left. James appeared in the doorway, a large man clad in black tactical wear with the word SWAT emblazoned in white letters on the back of his vest. It was only then that it dawned on Aaron how long he and his team had been wearing their body armor and tactical clothing. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure if that horrible stench was that of the living dead or himself.  
  
James glanced to either side of the door and waved at Aaron with two fingers beckoning him to come inside. Aaron picked up speed and jogged into the store. Loose pieces of paper littered the floor along with torn fragments of packaging. All the shelves were empty. He felt his shoulders sag and his hopes for a score at the checkpoint up the road increased.  
  
“How’d you make out here Lieutenant?” Aaron asked as he crossed the threshold into the building taking in all the empty wrappers and trash on the floor.  
  
“What does it look like Aaron?” Billy said rising up from behind the cash register “We didn't find a fucking thing.”  
  
James let out a short laugh “You have such a way with words Billy.”  
William ‘Billy’ Blaze grinned,; he had the kind that was infectious. Once you saw him grin there was only a matter of time before you found yourself grinning for no real reason. Aaron caught himself grinning.  
  
“English was my best subject in school Eltee.”  
  
“Too bad you never graduated.” Aaron said.  
  
“I bet you didn’t know I speak a little sign language.” Billy said giving a universal hand-gesture of displeasure.  
  
Aaron and James laughed but were cut short by the rough coughing sound as Dillon Mane cleared his throat to get their attention. He had just appeared from the back storeroom.  
  
“Nothing in there either.” He said to Billy and James before turning his head to Aaron. “What about you?”  
  
“Yeah the checkpoint,” Aaron sighed “No less than ten biters crawling around so it wont be  
anything we can’t handle.”  
  
“So there may be more than ten?” Dillon asked. Sometime before the dead had started to rise from their graves Dillon had shaved the sides of his head leaving a neat Mohawk a few centimeters high running down the middle of his head. The hair had started to grow back and the Mohawk itself was now at least an inch long and was lined by a layer of dark brown stubble. It somehow made the large man seem all the more imposing.  
  
“It’s possible,” Aaron shrugged “That shard of glass doesn’t have great picture quality. To get an accurate count I would have had to walk out there in full view of the biters.”  
  
Dillon snorted “And I thought the military gave bad intelligence. I never realized how good we had it.”  
  
“Alright soldier-boy you do the recon on the next one.” Aaron said a little more than annoyed with the Ranger.  
  
“With his luck he’ll get one as empty as my stomach.” Billy sighed “We need a score and we need it soon.”  
  
“Agreed.” James said, a score was desperately needed. “When do you want to hit the checkpoint?” he asked the three others. Aaron, Dillon and Billy all glanced at each other seeming to come to a silent agreement.  
  
“Now if you want, we got plenty of daylight left.” Aaron said.  
  
James nodded “Okay, Aaron go get John down. We’ll get set up and see what we can find after we deal with the biters.”  
  
Aaron nodded and jogged back out the door. Dillon followed his path out but came to a stop just near the door at a rotating rack that had something wrapped in plastic in one of the slots.  
  
“We need to find a place to set up a more permanent camp, a motel off the highway or a gated community somewhere.” he said as he pulled one of the packages from the slot and waved it at James. “A map of the city should come in handy for finding something more long term.”  
  
“I know a small condominium complex not far from here.” Billy said jumping over the counter and landing with a heavy thud “There is a brick fence that lines the property, ;it’s about a foot taller than you Dillon. There’s no front gate but a couple of cars could fix that. Maybe even soldier-boy here could build something to keep the biters out.”  
  
“Could you?” James asked Dillon scratching his cheek.  
  
Dillon crossed his arms and chewed his bottom lip for a few seconds “I’d have to see the property first, but I think I might be able to improvise something.”  
  
“Alright, we hit this checkpoint and then go scope out this condo place.” James said “We’ll fill  
Aaron and John in after we get this over with.”  
  
There was a dull thud outside the store as Mendoza dropped the duffel bag full of weapons down to Aaron. Two-hundred and twenty pounds of Mexican-American sharpshooter quickly followed the bag over the edge of the roofing of the small do-it-yourself carwash fifty yards away. Hanging from a sling around his shoulder was his M4 carbine equipped with one of Dillon’s homemade silencers and a high-powered rifle scope he had pillaged from a damaged rifle they had found at one of the previous checkpoints.  
  
“How are we doing this?” He asked rising to his feet and cradling his improvised sniper rifle in his large arms like a newborn infant.  
  
“Same teams as last time John. Aaron, Billy and Dillon hit them straight on and you and me John will keep the stragglers from moving in on the sides.” James said. He walked across the parking lot at a brisk pace forcing Aaron and the others to break into a jog to catch up with him.  
  
Billy tapped Aaron on the back of his shoulder “You really didn’t get a decent count of how many biters are out there.”  
  
“Look these checkpoints were manned by one six-man fire team supplemented by a team of eight riot police. That’s fourteen people. This checkpoint fell a month ago, maybe most of the original security team are still there, or maybe some of them wandered off to look for another sorry SOB to gnaw on. All I know is that from what I heard and what I saw in that small piece of broken mirror I took from the store in the bathroom is that there are at least ten biters. Allow for some inflation in that estimate.” Aaron's voice was a whisper but there was no mistaking the anger that had crept into it.  
  
“Ok, holy fuck. No need to rip my head off for asking a question. I was just curious if you were just fucking with soldier-boy to try and get a rise out of him.” That stupid grin crossed Billy’s face again.  
  
“We don’t need to be causing rifts. What we need to do is focus on the goal of finding a more secure place to set up camp and stop living like nomads.” Aaron turned around and shoved his large index finger into the ballistic vest that Billy was wearing “And more importantly what you need to do is shut your face and get ready to kill some biters.”  
  
Billy raised his hands in submission but the grin didn’t fade from his face. He reached up and adjusted his tactical cap, black like the rest of his gear with SWAT imprinted across the front. All of the SWAT officers were wearing one. Billy was wearing his backwards and he rotated it so the bill of the hat now shielded his eyes from the sun. The last thing he needed was a glare interfering with his line of sight. The five man column came to a slow trot towards the same corner Aaron had vacated several minutes earlier.  
  
Mendoza took up position at the front of the line with Dillon, Aaron, Billy and James behind him. He looked over his shoulder and everyone else’s head followed suit in a cascade effect ending at them looking at James for the go ahead. James gave a single nod of his head and Mendoza, Dillon, Aaron and Billy rushed off out into the open street. Aaron came to a sliding halt behind the remains of an old sedan that had been tipped on it’s side, probably by the checkpoint security team to act as a barrier between them and the biters. He exhaled a deep breath that he didn’t remember inhaling and pulled the charging lever on his rifle and popped up over the truck.  
  
The first target that came into his line of sight was a moaning corpse wearing medical scrubs, it’s face was split down the middle of it’s chin and had a gaping hole in his chest where muscle and flesh should have existed. It ambled towards him in a fashion that resembled a drunken stupor, it’s right ankle was bent at an unnatural angle. He lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger. There was a puff of black liquid as the bullet forced its way through the rotting skull of the walking corpse and rocketed out through the weakened flesh. The body of what had once been a human being fell backwards in graceless slow motion.  
  
He shifted right and sighted up on his next target, this one wearing military fatigues. Dillon’s suppressors were doing their job flawlessly. The sounds of the spent ammo casings being ejected from the rifles was louder than the actual weapon discharge itself. He wondered how Dillon was handling having to dispatch his fellow soldiers in this manner. Did he feel sorrow for them having become these walking abominations? Or did he feel that it was his duty as a fellow soldier to save them from the hellish fate that had befallen his brothers in arms?  
Aaron had no way of knowing what went on in the head of Staff Sergeant Dillon Mane. He generally kept to himself and only spoke when his input was needed. All Aaron knew was that it was easy for him to pull the trigger. There was no mental quandary for him to deal with, these things were no longer human. No these things were just mindless husks who seemed to have only one purpose: to consume the flesh of the living.  
  
He exhaled again and squeezed off another round. This one entered just under the right eyeball of his target. The back of the undead soldiers skull erupted more violently than his first target. The walking corpse spun around before flopping into a heap on the concrete. The next few minutes fell into what had become routine over the last month: aim, exhale, shoot, repeat. The well oiled machine that was the SWAT team effortlessly picked off the walkers from a safe distance. The foul smell in the air seemed to thicken with fresh layers of rotted brain matter and septic muck that had spilled out of the dead soldiers who had guarded the checkpoint.  
  
Billy stepped out from cover first. He ejected the magazine from his M4 and loaded a new one, placing the spent mag into his left thigh pocket for reloading later.  
  
“Bagged four at least.” that stupid grin had reappeared on his face.  
  
Dillon shoved past him “It’s not a damn contest. This is a graveyard so show some fucking respect.”  
  
Aaron nodded his head a little. At least that was somewhat of an answer to his question. Dillon carefully walked out into the concrete cemetery and slowly rolled bodies over with the tip of his boot and began his search for needed supplies. James approached Billy and Aaron “You two check out those military trucks.” he pointed towards the far end of the checkpoint to two large transport trucks with canvas tops covering their back sections “See if they have anything useful and check if they run. We could use the transport.”  
  
“On it Eltee.” Billy said. He stalked off towards the two trucks keeping his eyes on the ground. He pulled out his sidearm and checked that the safety was off before reholstering the SIG P26 handgun on his thigh holster.  
  
“So….” Aaron said “You gonna apologize to Dillon for making that crack?” Even though Dillon was relatively new to their group he had a lot to offer and it didn’t strike Aaron as smart to piss of someone who had skills as valuable as his.  
  
“The fuck for? It’s not my fault that he’s such a grim bastard.”  
  
“He just put down a handful of Army grunts. If we had just topped a whole group of patrol officers how would you be feeling right now?” Aaron tried to keep his voice even and calm.  
  
Billy sighed “Fine if it’ll shut you up I’ll apologize later. But right now can we keep our eyes on the prize and avoided getting gnawed on by a biter playing possum?”  
  
Aaron nodded. Over the last few weeks the group had noted distinct patterns in how the biters behaved. Some would viciously pursue you once they noticed you and some others were perfectly content to sit there and remain inert until you came within eating distance. It was usually a good idea to put a round in the head of any biter corpse you came across whether it appeared to be truly and officially inactive or not. Aaron kept a close watch on the corpse ridden street as he and Billy approached the two trucks. His hopes for a decent score felt heavy on his shoulders. He couldn’t tell if the trucks were just what they appeared to be: plain army trucks used to move troops from A to B or if they were relief trucks that carried food and other needed supplies into the safe zone disguised as infantry trucks to prevent the chances of a theft.  
  
He was hoping for the latter.  
  
That soft guttural moaning that bothered Aaron so much began to well up from one of the bodies on the concrete. The biter that the noises were coming from was no real threat, it’s legs were no longer present. Aaron pulled his own sidearm, they had more 9mm bullets than ammo for the rifles, and approached the legless corpse. It began reaching up at him seemingly devoid of energy. He pressed the barrel of his of his sidearm flush against the skull of the biter and depressed the trigger.  
  
“Hey you done playing with the biters?” Billy called from the front of the first truck. “You mind checking the back for supplies while I see if this thing runs?”  
“Yeah I’m on it.” Aaron said detaching the silencer from his pistol and wiping the gore that covered it onto the fabric of the shirt of the biter he had just dispatched. He reattached the silencer and continued around to the back of the truck. The canvas that covered the rear of the vehicle was closed up by a large zipper. He climbed up onto the rear bumper of the vehicle and listened for the shuffling of feet or the distinct groans of biters moving around inside. He heard nothing but still brought his sidearm up a little just incase he had to react to something fast. He grabbed the zipper and pulled down.  
  
The inside of the truck was empty. There was a noisy clanking as Billy tried to get the vehicle’s engine to turn over. At least he had managed to find keys to the massive truck. The engine click three more times before Aaron heard the sound of the driver’s side door open and shut with a bang that was louder than Aaron would have liked.  
  
“This beast isn’t going anywhere. You got anything.”  
  
“Nadda.” Aaron said jumping down and heading for the second truck “Let’s see what’s behind door number two.”  
  
Billy followed him over to the truck and climbed into the cab again and began his search for a pair of keys. Once again he found them in the same place as he had in the previous vehicle: tucked away inside the visor on the driver’s side. “Come on you POS, I need a win here.” he inserted the key and twisted it. There was a few seconds of protest from the engine before it bellowed a throaty roar and rumbled into life. Billy never thought that his grin would leave his face ever again. He glanced down at the fuel gauge and smiled wider as he discovered only a quarter of a tank was missing. He shut the truck off and climbed out of the cab and walked around to the back. “Well I hit pay dirt, what about you?”  
  
Aaron’s head popped out from behind the canvas he had a grin just as large on his face as Billy did. “You found transport my friend but I found something even better.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“MREs. Four boxes filled with thirty each.”  
  
“Food?!”  
  
“Fucking food!” Aaron exclaimed retreating back into the truck and returning holding a large cardboard box filled with smaller boxes. He handed it to Billy before jumping back down to the street. “I’m sure we can all find something decent in there.”  
  
“Better than those fucking squirrels Mendoza shot last week.”  
  
“Amen.”  
  
They carried the two boxes of MREs over to the others. Dillon and James were huddled over an overturned crate with a map of Albany spread out across its surface. Mendoza was busy shoving more handgun and rifle ammunition into the duffle bag that held their small arsenal. James looked up over his shoulder and gave Aaron and Billy a curious look.  
  
“What did you find?”  
  
Aaron opened his box and grabbed one of the small military meals from within and tossed it to James. “See for yourself.”  
  
“Well check this one off in the win column.” James said after he caught to small box and read the label “Is that all of it?”  
  
“No we have two more boxes in that second truck back there.” Billy said setting his box down next to the map covered crate. “I got it to start, gas tank is almost full.”  
  
“Somebody better knock on wood.” Mendoza said without looking up from the duffel bag  
  
“When things usually start going this good it doesn’t take too long for them to go to shit again.”  
  
“And when it goes to shit again it usually does so tenfold.” Dillon added pulling a MRE from the box and studied it. Out of all of them he was the one most familiar with the meals.  
  
“You two are a couple of bleak fucks.” Billy said darkly “This is the best thing to happen to us in weeks.”  
  
“Whatever.” Dillon said dismissively “This condo place you were talking about, where is it?” he pointed down at the map.  
  
“Condo?” Aaron asked.  
  
“We’ve got food and ammo now we need a place to set up a more permanent camp that we can hold up in.” James said.  
  
Billy studied the map for a few seconds and then pointed to a spot on the map “Here, five blocks up.”  
  
“Alright let’s get to it then. Billy and John get the truck, Aaron you grab the weapons, Dillon you grab the food. Depending on how infested this condo is we may have a few more nights of roughing it out in the cold. At least we can sleep in the truck.”  
  
“Next on our list of things to acquire….sleeping bags.” Aaron joked as Mendoza handed him the duffel bag.  
  
James slapped him on the shoulder. For the first time in just over a month Aaron could say he felt content with the situation. He had real food, decent food, to eat and a safe place to sleep for the night. Indeed things were looking up. But the question was how long they would remain that way.


	2. Chapter Two: Saviors

## Chapter Two: Saviors

 

“This place doesn’t look any safer than those hotels we passed up outside the city.” Dillon said as he looked over his shoulder at Billy. “You sure about this place?”  
  
“Not one-hundred percent.” Billy said, “But these condos aren’t massive mansions, there can’t be that many biters in there.”  
  
“Look at the front gate.” Dillon pointed his finger at a massive wrought iron gate lying several feet from the walls it was supposed to be connected to. “How the hell are we going to fix that?”  
  
“I’d like to know how it got from the walls to the floor.” James said releasing his grip on the wheel of the army truck.  
  
“At least I had an idea.” Billy said.  
  
“We aren’t ruling it out yet.” James said “We’ll check it out and if it’s too hot we’ll book it back to the truck and bug out.” He looked around at the four men that made up his team. “John you stay here and keep the truck running, Aaron, Billy, Dillon you’re with me. Silencers on gentlemen.”  
  
Aaron moved to the back of the truck and slowly unzipped the tarp and peered around checking for biters. He didn’t see any, and more importantly, didn’t smell any.  
  
“Clear.” He said as he made the small jump from the truck bed to the concrete ground.  
Billy was right behind him. Two gentle thumps echoed off the surrounding buildings as Dillon and James tried to shut their doors as quietly as possible. John resealed the tarp and moved to the cab, ready to leave in a hurry. Thunder boomed in the distance as the clouds took on a morbid shade of gray. The four of them jogged towards the hole where the iron gate had once stood and Dillon went from one side to the other running his hand over the concrete. He took an interest in a crack on the right wall and went over to the gate itself.  
  
“What is it?” Aaron asked.  
  
Dillon removed his glove and ran his fingers over the metal. He stood up and pulled his glove back on. “Military grade explosives did this. They probably wanted to get into the condos and the gate was locked and they blew it.” He turned his gaze towards Billy and his voice took on a much darker tone “The blast would have drawn a lot of biters in this direction, this place could be too infested for us to handle.”  
  
“Your call Eltee.” Aaron said to James.  
  
“We’re here we might as well check it out before turning tail.” James said “But Billy goes in first.”  
  
“Gee…thanks.”  
  
The team fell into a single file line: Billy, Aaron, James and Dillon bringing up the rear. A second clap of thunder made Billy look up at the foreboding sky. A cold chill crept up into his gut and he didn’t like it, he didn’t consider himself someone who frightened easily. He looked over his shoulder at Aaron who gave him a subtle nod. Billy inhaled deeply before turning around the corner and into the courtyard of the house. He slowly scanned left to right with his rifle, knowing that the people behind him are doing the same gave him a comforting feeling. There were four sets of condos in the walled compound, each one facing across from another. The courtyard was absolutely barren, loose pieces of torn newspaper fluttered by on the breeze. The stink of the undead, however, was everywhere. The oily smell forced its way  
down his nostrils and coated the back of his throat.  
  
“Oh yeah, there is something here.” Dillon said putting the back of his left hand to his mouth in a failing attempt at holding off the stench.  
  
“Shut up and keep your eyes peeled.” James replied  
  
“Which one do we clear first?” Billy asked.  
  
“The closet one,” Aaron said pointing to the condo on the right.  
  
Billy headed over to the door of the designated condo and grabbed hold of the doorknob, Aaron stood directly behind him while Dillon and James took up defensive positions facing the empty courtyard just in case any undead decided to lumber out from the murky shadows. Billy twisted the doorknob and met resistance. “Fucking thing is locked.” he sighed.  
  
“Boot it.” James said.  
  
Billy stepped aside and points at the door “You’re the brute force guy Aaron.”  
Aaron shook his head before moving to stand in front of the door “It better not be dead bolted.”  
  
“Take note of the irony in that.”  
  
Aaron planted his foot hard against the wooden door. The lock shattered and sent wooden splinters flying in all directions. The interior of the house was pitch black and the stench worsened. Aaron keeled over and began gagging involuntarily as the overwhelming smell hit him like a steam roller. Billy patted him on the back with one hand and shields his mouth with the other. He headed into the house and Aaron slowly followed him in. There is a soft click as Billy switched on his flashlight and shined it on the interior. On the fall war there was a dark congealed substance that they had all seen too often over the last couple days. Dillon and James entered the house turning on their own flashlights and shine them across room.  
  
“Aaron and Dillon check upstairs. Billy we’ll finish scoping out the first floor.” James said closing the door. It made a creaking noise that would serve as an early warning to any unwanted guests entering the house while they are searching it.  
  
Dillon climbed the stairs first and Aaron noted how a slight jingling sound echoed from his thigh pocket. He followed Dillon closely as they entered the upstairs hallway. Dillon looked over his shoulder and held up three fingers indicating three rooms. He pointed his index finger at the nearest room, which was up on their left. The door to the room was ajar and they approached with caution. Aaron stacked up on the right side of the door, Dillon did the same on the left and grabbed the doorknob, nodding to Aaron. Aaron nodded back and three heartbeats later Dillon threw the door open and both men swung their rifles into the room searching for threats. The room was empty, save for a baby’s crib. Both men tried to ignore the dark stains on the crib’s white and pale blue paint scheme. Dillon waved his flashlight across the room and saw nothing threatening or worth value.  
  
“No places for biters to hide in hear.” He whispered to Aaron as he moved across the hall to the next room, pocket jingling gently once again.  
  
“Hey, is your pocket full of what I think it is?” Aaron whispered back.  
  
Dillon stared at him for a quick second before sighing “Someone has to remember the soldiers who died trying to defend the city.”  
  
Aaron nodded his head and gripped the doorknob of the next door “When you’re ready Staff Sergeant.”  
  
Dillon gripped his rifle tight and nodded at the SWAT officer. The door was ripped open and this time a wet, thick, guttural moan drifted out from the far corner. Dillon shined his light in the direction of the noise, illuminating a thin man in a cheap beige dress shirt and slacks. The thing’s skin has taken on the sickly grey tones of the recently undead. Aaron brought his rifle up without even thinking and depressed the trigger. The bullet ripped through the creature’s cranial cavity, exploding oily fluid and rotted flesh against the wall behind it. A final helpless groan escaped the thing’s lips as it slumped over like a drunk after a night of hard drinking. The two men press into the room, Aaron watching the right flank while Dillon headed towards the dead walker. There were no more moans coming from the room, no ethereal gasps or anything else to make the two men think that biters might still be lurking in the dark. It didn’t stop Dillon from dropping to all fours and shining his light under the bed.  
  
“Score.” he uttered under his breath. “Gun safe under the bed.”  
  
“We have a bathroom and one more bedroom to clear; we’ll get John to crack it later.” Aaron said throwing open a closet door to find it completely emptied.  
  
Dillon climbed back up to his feet and they both walked back out into the hallway. The bathroom and master bedroom yielded nothing except a dresser full of woman’s clothing and some shoes. They headed back downstairs and met up Billy and James in the living room.  
  
“One down upstairs, but the rest of the house is clear.” Aaron said plopping down on the couch.  
  
“Good, downstairs is clear as well.” James said as he turned his flashlight off “It looks like a decent place to camp for a while.”  
  
“I’d hate to be the bearer of bad news but we still have three more condos to check for threats. You still think it’s a safe bet on staying here?” Dillon observes as he pulled back a blind on a window and peeked out at the other condos.  
  
“We nail the doors shut tonight and finish searching the buildings tomorrow.” Billy said joining Aaron on the couch. “You need to relax.”  
  
“I’ll relax when I’m dead.” Dillon said “But I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”  
  
“Good,” James said patting him on the shoulder “You can take Aaron and Billy out to that construction site up the road and get supplies to barricade this place a little better.”  
  
Billy and Aaron climbed off the couch slowly. It was the most comfortable thing they had encountered for a while. “Even though we have those MREs I think it’s a good idea to bolster our food supply. There’s a Save-A-Lot not far from the construction site. We’ll hit it and see what we can find.” Aaron said as he walked out the door.  
  
Billy followed him out with Dillon not far behind. They walked up to the truck and Mendoza climbed out of the cab.  
  
“So?”  
  
“Block the entrance to this place with the truck; we’ll be staying for the near future.” Dillon said  
  
“We’re going out on a supply run at the construction site up the road.”  
  
“You should probably take the truck then.”  
  
“No we’ll hotwire something on the street. There’s a nice F350 on the corner that’ll fit our needs just fine.”  
  
Mendoza shrugged and headed up to the condo to find James. Aaron and his two companions made quick time up the street where Dillon saw the Ford F350. The vehicle was a massive beast and certainly capable of fulfilling the job they had been given. Billy climbed up into the cab and began messing with the wiring.  
  
“Why am I not surprised he knows how to do this?” Dillon uttered sourly.  
  
Aaron grunted in amusement “Even a wayward child can turn into the most dedicated cop. Billy and I are living proof of that.”  
  
Dillon shrugged. There is an audible zap and the smell of ozone as the truck rumbled into life. Its engine let out a throaty roar as Billy pressed down on the accelerator. “Alright ladies, let’s get this shopping trip over with.”  
____________________  
  
“There has to be more than just canned tomatoes in this place.” Rebecca whispered to herself as she picked her way through the already thoroughly scavenged aisles of the Save-A-Lot.  
  
It was an ideal place to search for food because it was only four blocks from the house that she and the five others in her group were using as their shelter at the moment. At twenty-six years old she was the youngest adult in her group, which consisted of two men in their late fifties, one in his late thirties a woman in her early thirties and two children who they had found in an elementary school just a few weeks earlier. Rebecca was also the most physically fit person in the group, having been a PE major before the University had been overrun, and she kept herself in pretty good condition. She was able to get into the city and get out before the walkers ever knew she was there.  
  
Armed with nothing else but a crowbar to defend herself with, she snuck into the city on a weekly basis to find whatever was needed by the group, which was usually food. She tried to stay close to the house but found herself constantly pushing out into areas of the city that became more infested with walkers the further she went. Today had been an unusually lucky day for her so far she hadn’t seen, heard or smelled any of the walking corpses near the Save-A-Lot. Though there was still the stench of death and decay hanging over the city. It was probably the easiest thing in the new world to become accustom to and it was pretty easy to tell the difference from the lingering smell and the stomach turning stench of a decomposing walker.  
  
She picked her way across the floor of an aisle littered with crushed cans planning her movements as if she had been navigating a live minefield. She was afraid that if she so much as nudged one of those cans across the floor that the sound it made would be the equivalent of signing her own death warrant. Her eyes darted from shelf to shelf as she picked her way across the can strewn floor occasionally stopping to grab something that seemed to still be edible or to pick up a can from the floor that hadn’t been completely crushed. Fifteen minutes had passed since she had first walked into the Save-A-Lot and the mental count of how many cans she had tossed into her backpack had only reached six. Three cans of mixed vegetables, a can of sliced pineapples, a can of sweet corn and a badly dented can of green beans.  
  
She was pretty sure the children in the group wouldn’t be all too thrilled with those menu options but it was either the items she found or simply starve. As sad is it was to admit she knew that there were more than a few of the adults back at the house who would have no problem eating what the children wouldn’t and would have no problems letting them starve. She was still having trouble believing that they’d even had to debate the matter of whether to leave the children behind or not.  
  
As far as it went when it came to having people to survive the end of the world with she had most definitely gotten more than one rotten apple in hers. It was the story of her life. Fred Kaplan was the worst by far however, he was a former bank security guard. Rebecca was certain the man had snapped, he kept the two children locked up twenty-four-seven for fear that they would create noise and attract walkers. She was sickened by the fact that no one in the group than her and Victoria were bothered by it and had done nothing to try and correct the problem. No one challenged Kaplan because he had the only gun.  
  
Rebecca hoped that her newfound crowbar would do the job.  
  
She was still determined to find something that the children wouldn’t have too much of a problem eating. As she tossed a second can of corn into her backpack she rounded the corner into the next aisle and peered down the nearly barren shelves. She squatted down and tucked a lock of her amber colored hair back behind her ear and stuck her hand into the far corners of the bottom most shelf just to make sure nothing had been moved out of plain sight. Her hand grasped a can that seemed to be somewhat undamaged, other than a few dings that could have come from shipping, and felt the first genuine smile cross her face for the first time in a long time as she tossed a can of desirable spaghetti and meatballs into her pack.  
It was only one can so if she was unable to find anything else they would probably have to share it, they’d still be hungry afterwards but at least they wouldn’t be as hungry. It was only a small thing but it had certainly made her feel far better than she had than any other time in the last few weeks. Over the next few minutes she discovered a small box of powdered milk and some generic concentrated orange drink. The next four aisles proved to be completely deserted.  
  
“Figures as much.” She sighed as she made her way towards the back of the store to where most similar places kept their inventory before being shelved. “Might as well be thorough.” She said pushing her way through the plastic tarp.  
  
That was when the smell hit her. It caught in the back of her throat making her gag and cough involuntarily. She brought the back of her hand up to her face in a vain effort to counter the stench. She gripped the crowbar in her hand tighter as she continued onward into the back. She exited the entryway and walked out into the vast inventory room and she quickly discovered that the smell being emitted was not from a dead corpse or a living corpse but of decomposing meat that had been left to rot in the hot summer sun after the power to the freezing units had failed.  
  
Somewhat relieved she pressed on peering into cardboard boxes to inspect the contents. More times than not she had found boxes of meat that had yet to be placed into the freezer and had received a face full of fly’s and gnats for her trouble. She did find a big score in a box stacked with cans of corned beef hash and quickly went about piling them into the backpack.  
  
“I knew I had a good feeling about this place.” She said satisfied with her haul and feeling pretty certain that she would be welcomed back as a hero, if not by the adults then by the children. If she could ever get them out of that closet.  
____________________  
  
Sound traveled a lot further than it used to. The smallest of sounds can be amplified and heard crystal clear without the static white-noise of everyday life to wash it out. There was no blaring car horn and angry shouting as one driver pulled out in front of another, no gentle scraping of shopping cart wheels on concrete and plastic tiles, no droning tones as items are scanned at the register and placed into bags. It’s the coughing sound that first gets their attention. The few undead in the rear lot of the store shuffle in their seemingly drunken fashion towards the noise. Soon the sound of a soft voice echoes off the empty store shelves quickly followed by the sound of tennis shoes tapping on the slick tile floor. Gentle clanging of cans soon joins the small symphony of hushed noises pulling the few undead roaming the far isles of the store towards the noises being generated by Rebecca Ames.  
____________________  
  
Rebecca climbed up to her feet and pulled the backpack over her slender shoulders. The pack was considerably heavier than it was when she had first entered the store. She grunted with the effort and hoped that her luck continued to hold out because if she needed to run she would have to drop the pack. Once she was sure that the pack wasn’t going to slip from her shoulders she grabbed her crowbar from the floor and headed back the way she came. She didnt pick up on the foul smell because the stench of the rotting meat in the freezer. Her first clue that something had gone horribly wrong was the gentle groans reverberating off the shelves ahead of her.  
  
_Shit!_ She thought to herself as she ducked down and headed back to the loading dock. The walkers hadn’t seen her yet so she figured her chances of getting out unnoticed were still somewhat decent. She jogged through the inventory room towards the access port the supply trucks used. Then she saw them, ten, maybe more, lumbering around the concrete plain outside.  
  
More importantly they saw her.  
  
She skidded to a halt and looked for another exit. The dead began to clamber up the ramp into the loading dock forcing her to run back into the entry room. The gentle moans had turned into blood thirsty snarls as the walkers reached out for her flesh. The pack began to slide down her shoulders and she tried to pull it back up before it made her fall over. She turned the corner and came face to face with a walker, a woman who might have been a few years younger than herself still wearing a nametag and badge that said: MANAGER. There was no thinking just action as Rebecca brought the crowbar around in a violent arc that connected just above the walkers left temple. Black gore oozed from the crater she had made and more leaks out as she tries to pull the crowbar free from the things head.  
  
The baying of hungry walkers behind and in front of her grew louder and she realized that she has to give up on freeing the crowbar if she wanted to live a few more minutes. One of the undead scrambled up the corner behind her, far enough away that she has time to unsling the backpack and grip one of the straps in her hand. The undead thing lumbered within a few inches of her and she gave another swing slamming the pack against the walker. It doesn’t do any damage to the creature other than knocking it off balance and buying her some time to get away.  
  
She looked around the room for a fire exit or anything that could lead to her getting out of the store alive. Four more of the creatures poured into the room from the front of the store forcing Rebecca to move back into the storeroom. The walker she had knocked over grabbed hold of the pack snarling, puss colored fluid dripping from its snapping jaws as she pulled and it tugged on the supply filled backpack. There was a sick sound of tearing flesh as the walker’s wrist, rotted from nearly a month and a half of decay, gives to the strain of the tug-of-war. The sudden release caused Rebecca to fall backwards, her foot catches on a dip in the concrete floor sending a fiery stab of pain shooting up from her right ankle to the top of her calf.  
The walker reached out for her with its nub of an arm, jagged ends of bone tearing through the remains of the rotting flesh of its arm.  
  
She pulled herself up and looked around the room only to find that both exits are filled with undead. The only thing she sees that is out of their reach is a freezer cabinet. She is pretty sure that she can fit in the small gap between the cabinet top and the ceiling. She started to rush towards it but her right leg gave out under her. She cried out in fear as the things closed in around her. She started to pull herself along the floor of the storeroom towards the shelves next to the cabinet. If she wanted to climb onto the freezer she needed to climb the shelves. She can hear the scuttling footsteps of the walkers multiply and draw closer to her. For no reason other than shear desperation she begins screaming.  
  
“Help! Somebody help me!” She sobbed as she continued to pull herself along the concrete floor, feeling it scrape her elbows and forearms raw with every pull. There was more scuttling and mindless groaning as the undead piled in around her. She tried to stand one last time and make a running jump for the shelves only to have her leg fail before she could even get upright. She kept screaming and curled into a ball knowing that she’ll be swarmed by the walkers before she’ll ever make it to the freezer.  
  
That’s when it happens: a sharp bark and a flash of light.  
  
Then it increased into a symphony of a rhythmic bursts she had heard all too often in the early days of the outbreak. She covered her ears and pressed her face into the concrete as the sound of automatic weapons fire thundered in the small room. The clatter was accompanied by wet smacking sounds as pieces of skull were liberated from the heads of the walkers and the hollow thud of bodies falling to the floor, truly dead.  
  
A large set of arms grabs hold of her and pulls her to her feet. Suddenly her back is pinned against the wall and a bright light is shined directly into her face.  
  
“Were you bit?” a voice asked, deep and scratchy. She tried to shield her eyes from the light but her hands were held down by a second set of hands. “Hold still and answer the question!” the voice repeats.  
  
Rebecca shook her head. “No I…I wasn’t, but my ankle is messed up.”  
  
“Aaron, we gotta move. Using the guns without the silencers drew the biters away from her but attracted every other undead fuck in the area. We don’t leave soon, the truck and supplies will be cut off.”  
  
“Can you walk?” the large man asked Rebecca  
  
“Not really.” she replied.  
  
She gasped as she was suddenly lifted off her feet by the set of arms.  
  
“Billy grab that pack. Dillon you clear us a path out to the truck.” the raspy voice, now identified as Aaron, said. He threw Rebecca over his left shoulder and pulled a pistol from a hip holster.  
Normally Rebecca would have protested about being carried like a piece of luggage, but she didn’t have the energy to neither argue nor walk, even if her leg wasn’t injured in the first place. The groaning began to increase again as she bounced on the shoulder of the man carrying her. She saw the shelves on the sales floor rush by in reverse as Aaron and his two companions hurried to the front of the store. She heard soft metallic pings as the three men fired their weapons, suppressed once again. More undead dropped as the foursome rushed through the aisles.  
  
“Christ!” one of the other men grunted as they crashed through the already broken front doors  
  
“They’re all over the truck.”  
  
“Pick ‘em off.” Aaron ordered. “Just don’t hit the truck.”  
  
Rebecca felt her pulse hammer in her throat as the three men pushed forward slowly, taking their time to aim and place precision shots to avoid damaging their only means of escape.  
“Reloading,” one of the men said as he shifted position so he was now standing behind Aaron and directly in front of Rebecca. The man was wearing black body armor and matching clothing underneath of it. The baseball cap he was wearing had the word SWAT embroidered across the front. A small tag on his vest read: BLAZE. He made eye contact with her for a brief moment and she saw surprise and shock in his eyes for a split second. He reloaded his rifle and swung back out in front of Aaron and continued the slow advance.  
It was a few seconds before she heard the sound of a car door opening. Aaron handed her to the other black clad figure who slid her into the backseat of the truck before climbing into the passenger seat. Aaron lifted her feet up, forcing a painful grunt from her, and slid into the back seat with her. He set her feet in his lap and looked at the man in the driver’s seat.  
  
“Move it Dillon, we need to get back to James and Mendoza.”  
  
Rebecca looked around the cab of the truck and sighs in relief. She looked at the three men in the cab, two of them decked out in black armor and clothing and the driver wearing the camouflage of a soldier. Her gaze landed on the patch on the shoulder, or more the writing under the patch, of the man sitting next to her: ALBANY SPECIAL WEAPONS AND TACTICS UNIT.  
  
“Are there more of you guys? Is the Military still fighting this?” she asked.  
  
The driver laughed “For all I know lady I’m the last living soldier in the city and these crazy fucks are probably some of the last cops.”  
  
“Officer William Blaze at your service ma’am.” the man in the front passenger seat says without looking back at her, he was busy fighting with the plastic wrapping on a Slim Jim. “The cheerful bastard driving the truck is Staff Sergeant Dillon Mane. The handsome devil next to you is Officer Aaron Reese, the architect of your rescue.”  
  
“Rebecca Ames,” She replied and looked at Aaron “I guess I should say thank you.”  
  
Aaron was fiddling with a small first aid kit. “You guess?” he said as he pulled an ice-pack and some medical tape from the kit. He started undoing the laces of her shoe on her right foot. Her hand clenched the fabric of the seat as pain races up her leg. “Relax,” he said as he removed the shoe as gently as possible and examined her foot “It isn’t broken, I guess you could consider that your second miracle of the day.”  
  
He crushed the ice-pack in his hands to activate it and wrapped it around her swollen ankle before wrapping it in tape.  
  
She looked at Aaron and then at Billy and Dillon. A light clicks on in the back of her head, a solution to a problem.  
  
“I’m part of a group, we’ve got kids and that’s who the supplies in the backpack are for.”  
  
“You want us to drop you there?” Dillon asked.  
  
“Yes but when we get there I want you to do something?” She said trying to sit up. She is looking at Aaron more than anyone.  
  
“Such as?” he asked.  
  
“The kids, two little girls, are locked in a closet and have been for a week or two.”  
  
There is silence in the vehicle for a few seconds.  
  
“You locked two kids in a closet for a couple weeks?” Billy said slowly as if he was having trouble understanding.  
  
“Not me no…I’ve been trying to get them out but the crazy bastard who calls himself our leader won’t let them out. He thinks they’ll only make noise that will attract more walkers.”  
  
“Why haven’t you been able to get them out?” Aaron asked.  
  
“Kaplan is the only one with a gun. He’s built like you guys and has no problem hurting people who disagree with him.” Rebecca sighed “I found that out the hard way.”  
  
Dillon sighed “It isn’t safe out here and food is in no large supply and in my experience kids complain when they get hungry.”  
  
“You sound like Kaplan.” Rebecca said her voice becoming sharp.  
  
“I’m not saying that he should have locked them up. You could let them out during the day and lock them up when the biters become active.”  
  
“Do you even hear yourself?” Billy exclaimed. “Locking up children in a closet isn’t right, apocalypse or not.”  
  
“I’ve just about had it with you.” Dillon said turning his head towards Billy. “This shit with those kids is none of _our_ business, that girl in the back is not _my_ responsibility and as a matter of fact neither are _you_. You should be thanking me for all I’ve done for this group, without me and my metal working skills you four fucks would probably be dead by now.”  
  
Billy latched onto the bait like a rabid pitbull but Aaron intervened.  
  
“Alright enough, what has happened to those girls isn’t right.” Aaron lets out a tired sigh “Leaving her in the store wasn’t an option either and we aren’t going to ignore what is happening to those two girls.” He turned his head back to Rebecca “What do you want us to do?” he asked as he removed his tactical cap and ran his hands through his dark hair.  
  
“I want you guys to dethrone the king.” Rebecca stares directly into his eyes “Permanently.”


	3. Chapter Three: Nightfall

## Chapter Three: Nightfall

  
Victoria had never been fond of spam but the way things were now, beggars couldn’t be choosers. She still turned down the slab of questionable meat as it was handed to her by an elderly man wearing a Vietnam War veteran’s cap.

“No thank you Shaun I’ll pass.”

“Suit yourself doc.” the war veteran replied plopping down on the dirty couch with an extra slice of meat on his plate.

It wasn’t because she wasn’t hungry, in reality she was starving but she couldn’t eat knowing the two girls locked in the closet wouldn’t ever get a single scrap. She turned her gaze from the dimly lit living room back to the window she had been staring out of. It was facing the back yard of the house, which was now serving the group of survivors living inside it as the front entrance. The actual front of the house was too infested with walkers to be of use. Still Kaplan had insisted on covering all windows on the lower floor with bed sheets just to be safe. There was still enough light outside to enable her to make out shapes in the overgrown  
grass of the backyard.

The shapes were all stationary: a children’s swing set and a cheap plastic jungle gym that had probably been purchased at the Toy’s R Us up the road. For a single instant Rebecca pictured the two girls that were being held hostage essentially in the closet laughing and having a fun time doing what children did. She pictured them playing with the swing and the climbing over the jungle gym. It wouldn’t ever happen though and she knew she could be certain about that. Kaplan wouldn’t let them out of the closet for fear that any noise they made would escape through the solid walls of the house and out into the street where the walkers would hear it. But he didn’t have a problem screaming his head off at Rebecca. Heavy footfalls bounced off the once nice wooden floors of the living room and came to a stop not far behind Victoria.

“What the hell are you doing?” Kaplan growled. His voice had a deep gravely tone gained through a decade or two of heavy drinking. “You know the rules: stay away from the windows during the day.”

“I’m watching for Rebecca.” Victoria replied without bothering to look at Kaplan. “There aren’t any walkers out there so don’t get your panties in a twist.”

Kaplan shoved her in the back which knocked her forehead against the window pain. Victoria cried out, as much as from shock as from pain as his large hand latched on to the back of her skull. The sudden feel of cold metal against the back of her neck made her go quiet.

“I don’t know who you think you are but you don’t get to talk to me like that.” Kaplan growled

“It’s bad enough I have to put up with that other bitch because I put those two brats in the closet, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you start giving me shit to.”

“I’m sorry.” Victoria cried out. It was out of reflex she had absolutely nothing to be sorry for, but if it got him to remove the gun from the back of her neck then she would say it as many times as he wanted her to. “I wont go near the windows again.”

There was a few long seconds before the cool metal of his revolver lifted from her skin.

“Good. I wish that the other broad would learn as quick as you. You’re wasting your time anyway if she hasn’t come back yet then the walkers got her.”

_I wouldn’t bet on that_. Victoria thought as she felt a trickle of warm blood slide down the side of her face from a cut somewhere above her scalp. Victoria had spent a month on the road with Rebecca and had learned one thing about the woman: she was resourceful. Rebecca was probably holed up someplace for the night or maybe she had found someone to help deal with Kaplan. The possibility that Kaplan may be right wasn’t exactly something she could rule out though, resourcefulness only got you so far.

Of the three options, number one and number three were the front runners. If Rebecca had managed to come across another group, the likelihood of them having any interest in the plights of others probably wouldn’t be too high. People didn’t think like they used to anymore. It was all about personal survival and surrounding yourself with people who could enhance your ability to stay alive nowadays. As sad as it was, two little girls wouldn’t improve the chances of anyone’s survival. Victoria tried to shutout the thought of other people out in the world sharing Kaplan’s point of view.

“Hell if that woman doesn’t come back by tomorrow night I’ll finally be able to deal with the situation those kids have brought on us the way it should have been dealt with on day one.” Kaplan said walking towards the closet and giving it a thunderous kick with his boot. “You hear me you little shits, the clock starts now.”

The two startled cries that rang out from behind the oak door broke Victoria’s heart. She watched as Shaun sat on the couch eating his double portion of spam without so much as giving Kaplan a disgruntled glare. The old veteran hadn’t even bothered to get up and help her when Kaplan had held a gun to her head. Once the crazed man who had taken charge of the group wandered towards the bedroom on the far side of the first floor, Victoria wheeled on the veteran.

“Thanks for the fucking help.” she hissed. Her voice was low and she made no effort to hide her fear of Kaplan.

Shaun didn’t look up from the paper Dixie plate “Don’t mention it.”

She let out a bewildered huff “You must have been one hell of a Marine.”

“Those kids aren’t my problem and I don’t need to get involved.” Shaun replied “I’m too damn old for arguments.”

“Those kids aren’t the problem. Kaplan is and we need to fix it.”

“I haven’t noticed you standing up to Kaplan when he’s busy beating up on your friend.”  
Shaun snapped at her “You seem perfectly fine to let her bare the brunt of his anger about what he feels is a very big security risk. Why are you so gung-ho about saving those kids now?”

“I have to stood up with Rebecca.”

“And Kaplan smacked you a good one and you were all too happy to sit on the sidelines.” Shaun sighed. He became fatigued quicker than anyone else in the group “Why are you doing this now? Making up for your inaction over the last few weeks because you think your friend is dead?”

Victoria stared at him for a few moments “Maybe something like that.” she plopped down on the couch next to him “Those kids deserve a shot at life and if the person who has been fighting for that chance isn’t around anymore then I’ll take it up.”

“Have you ever thought that what’s outside beyond those doors may be the existence those  
girls are destined to live?” Shaun asked. “It may be easier on them than having to live in a hellhole’s like this living on nothing but scraps for the rest of their lives.”

“Can you hear what you are saying!?” she exclaimed “You’re talking about killing children!”

“It may be the more humane thing to do.”

“I cant take this.” Victoria said getting up and heading for the staircase that lead to the two  
other bedrooms in the house. “No one is going to lay a hand on those girls.”

She stalked her way up the stairs not paying attention to her surroundings. She hadn’t heard the footfalls behind her as she rounded the corner into her and Rebecca’s room. Something large and heavy pounced on her from behind and forced her against the wall. Kaplan’s heavily alcohol scented breath wafted into her nostrils.

“You know what?” he rasped into her ear “Me and that other bitch had an arrangement.” Fear crept up into Victoria’s throat. She was all too aware of the arrangement between Rebecca and Kaplan. It was one more thing she had turned a blind eye to. She had heard the violence with which Kaplan had forced himself on Rebecca night after night and she had treated the wounds without so much as looking Rebecca in the eye. “If you want those kids to live out the night, you’ll hold up her end of the arrangement.”

Victoria was sure she wasn’t strong enough to deal with the repeated assaults Rebecca had put up with. “If I say no?” she croaked.

“Then I shoot those kids and come back here and take what I want anyway.” he snarled “And I wont be as gentle as I would be if you just hold still and be a good girl.” She closed her eyes and tried to control the thumping her heart was doing in her chest. Tears forced their way out through her eyelids. “That’s what I thought. Now if you make a sound without me telling you to, things will only get worse.”

She sucked in a shuddering breath as she heard the sound of his belt being undone and the sound of his zipper being opened. He sank his teeth into her shoulder enough to cause her a stabbing jolt of pain without drawing blood. He settled his body against hers and she readied herself for the nightmare that was about to start. A loud bang echoed up the stairs from the front the house. Kaplan instantly turned his head in the direction of the noise. A voice drifted up from the yard outside.

“Albany PD. We’re searching for survivors!”

Kaplan was off her in a single instant. Victoria slowly slid down the wall sobbing uncontrollably.  
____________________

_One hour earlier_  
  
Rebecca picked at the ice-pack that had been tapped to her ankle, which was now swollen enough to make her worry. She was sitting on a large bed on the second floor of a condo that contained five men who looked like they had walked through hell and back. They weren’t predatory wolves like Kaplan was, no she had found men who were more like dogs who kept the wolves away from the flock. These men were big dogs. More importantly though these men were decent. The one that had saved her, Aaron, had patched up her ankle with a fresh ice-pack and had even given her an MRE to eat. She had doubts that the product in the cardboard box would actually taste like lasagna but she had been pleasantly surprised.

He had locked her in the bedroom as a precaution, she hadn’t resisted to it. She figured that if she was going get them to help her she would have to be as accommodating as possible. If the conversation during the car ride back to their camp was anything to go by, it appeared that Aaron and his friend Billy were the only one’s committed to helping her. The large soldier who had been with them didn’t want anything to do with her and she had no idea how the two other SWAT cops were thinking. She knew the five of them were down there discussing what to do, she could occasionally hear a raised voice or two. It sounded like Billy and Dillon, the large soldier who was firmly against helping her. She picked away at the remains of her MRE and tried not to think about the outcome of their decision too hard. If they turned her down she didn’t know what she would do. She looked down at the plastic pouch that contained her lasagna and suddenly felt extremely guilty. Here she was feasting on real food while Victoria and the girls were stuck with Kaplan with nothing more than a few cans of spam.

She pushed the food away, truly disgusted with herself and that was when she heard the door to her room being unlocked. An older man wearing the same black body armor as Aaron walked in first, followed by Aaron and Billy. The older man looked at her curiously for a few moments before introducing himself.

“I’m James Walden, the man in charge of this little group.” his voice was deep and had a very paternal tone to it “Aaron has told me about your problem and we all had a rather spirited conversation about what you are asking us to do.” His tone was gentle but also serious. “I don’t think locking up children in a closet is a crime that warrants a death sentence.”

Her spirits sunk and it had to have showed on her face because Aaron spoke up. “Me, Billy, John and Dillon are going to head to your camp and retrieve those kids and bring them back here along with anyone else who wants to come with us.”

“It will be a strain on our resources.” James stated “You all are going to earn your keep.”

“We’ll do whatever we have to.” She exclaimed.

“Tell me though why did you really want that man dead?” James asked.

She chewed on her bottom lip for a long silent minute. “He’s done more than just lock two girls in a closet.” the words practically came out as a whisper.

“Such as?”

She looked at the three men and they stared back. She slowly rolled the bottom of her tank  
top up revealing her torso and the fresh bruising.

“That’s the price for keeping two little girls alive.” she said feeling her throat getting sore and voice becoming raspy. “This is him being…gentle. It’s usually worse, much worse.”

Aaron cleared his throat “Does he just beat on you or has he…” he let the question trail off.

She nodded “Yes he’s done…other things.”

She noticed as something work it’s way into the eyes of Aaron Reese, something animalistic and primal that she knew didn’t belong there.

“That’s all I need to know.” His voice had become darker and matched the violent gaze that had fallen on his face. “James will be downstairs if you need him.”

Aaron left the room at a quick pace and Billy, looking deeply concerned, followed him out. James started for the door but Rebecca stopped him.

“Hey, why aren’t you going out with them?”

The veteran SWAT officer studied her for a moment “I spent my career going after the worse sort of human beings imaginable. I have killed seventeen men in four decades of service. The world was different then, now there aren’t as many living as there are dead walking the streets. I’m just tired of killing the living.”

“Men like Kaplan don’t deserve to live.” Rebecca stated clearly “They deserve to die a slow, burning death in the deepest, darkest pit Hell has to offer.”

“Well rest assured Rebecca,” he sighed almost sounding disappointed “If such a pit exist Aaron Reese will put him there.”

He walked out looking almost as disappointed as he sounded. Rebecca fell backwards on the soft pillow on the massive bed and looked up at the ceiling. She didn’t care how James felt. The only thing that mattered was that Kaplan was going to get what was coming to him.  
____________________

Aaron made it down the staircase first and blew right past Dillon and John as he headed for the door. Billy was calling after him but he didn’t slow down at all until Billy’s hand clamped down on his shoulder.

“Hey I know your pissed off about what happened to that girl but you need to think a little more clearly.” Billy said “Kaplan is armed, he was a security guard so he knows how to handle a weapon pretty well. You cant just kick in the front door and hope he’ll be sitting on the couch with his gun out of reach.”

Aaron looked at his friend. Billy was right, he couldn’t just storm the house and open fire. He knew he needed to keep a clear head if they were going to pull this off cleanly, but that fact didn’t keep his blood from boiling. “You…have a plan?”

Billy slapped him on the back and gave him that large, disarming grin “Of course I do. This man is bent on keeping his camp secure, we roll up in the military truck and knock on his door an announce ourselves as police officers searching for survivors to take back to a secure military camp.”

“Yeah when he asks where the camp is where are you going to tell him this military camp is situated?” Dillon asked as he and Mendoza approached the two other men.

“Griffiss Air Force Base.” Billy said instantly “That’s what all the rumors were before the safe zone fell. It’ll have more creditability coming from cops and a soldier.”

“We’re a hell of a long way from Griffiss. You sure he’ll buy that?”

“He doesn’t need to.” Aaron said as he climbed into the truck “He just needs to open the front door and let us in.”

“And then?” Dillon asked.

“I put a bullet in him.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Dillon for the time being as he climbed into the back of the truck with Aaron and Billy.

“Mind if I ask why I always end up driving?” Mendoza asked as he climbed into the front seat.

“Because you’re so good at it.” Billy laughed.

“You’re an ass Billy, you know that.”

“I’ve been called that, among other things.” the truck rumbled into life and moved off down the street. Billy handed Mendoza a piece of paper with the address of Kaplan’s camp on it.

“Take us there driver, feel free to take the scenic route.”

Mendoza laughed as he looked at the address on the piece of paper. “One of these days Billy your jokes are going to piss the wrong person off.”

“That’s what I have Aaron for, I’ve got the brains and he has the brawn.”

Aaron stayed out of the conversation. His mind was somewhere else as the playful banter between Mendoza and Billy continued for another ten minutes. Dillon had been silent since they had left the condos, his head was resting against the canvas top of the vehicle and his eyes were shut. The ability to relax like that had to have come from years of riding in humvee’s in the more dangerous parts of the world. Aaron whished he could find that kind of inner peace at that particular moment.

“You mind telling me why your so bent on helping that woman, the children’s welfare aside?”  
Dillon asked without opening his eyes.

“What?” Aaron asked.

“When we heard her screaming in the Save-A-Lot all three of us ran to her, but the moment you saw her you threw out any cares about your own safety and had no problem putting me and Billy in jeopardy.” Dillon opened his eyes and stared at Aaron “You were neck deep in biters in seconds but you didn’t stop. Oh no you made sure to kill everything between your and her and when you got to her and she couldn’t walk you carried her back to the truck. When we got her back to our camp you patched her up and fed her. Now you not only have your pal Billy, but also John and I tagging along on a mission to kill some fuck who’s lost his mind. And we’re doing that because simply because she asked you to.” he shook his head slowly “To me at least it seems you and her have some kind of history. Do you know that woman?”

“No.” Aaron said without hesitation “Everything I’ve done and am about to do for her has all been done because it’s the right thing to do.”

“I’m calling bullshit on that buddy.” Dillon said “You don’t volunteer to kill a man as quickly as you did without either being some kind of psycho or having some form of relationship with the person doing the asking. I don’t think you’re a psycho.” Dillon paused and laughed “Then again I never thought that the dead would rise up and start eating the living.”

“I’m not psychotic.” Aaron said.

“Then what’s the deal here? The only thing helping her and her group gets us is more people to have to feed and protect. It’s very one sided.”

“Don’t worry about it, just keep an eye on the people in the house while I deal with this Kaplan guy.” Aaron sighed.

“You ever killed anyone before?”

“I’m a member of a SWAT team.” Aaron stated pointing at the patch on his shoulder “I’m  
trained to use lethal force.”

“That’s not an answer to my question. I didn’t ask you if you’re capable of killing. I asked if you had ever killed anyone before.”

Aaron stared at the Army Ranger sitting across from him “One. I’ve killed one person in my entire career.”

“Was it in cold blood?”

“Of course not.”

“Well that’s what you’re about to do you know, dupe a man into letting you inside his camp and then putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger when he isn’t looking.”

“He’ll be looking at me when I pull the trigger, that much I can guarantee.”

Dillon shrugged “I just hope you can live with the act you’re about to commit.”

Aaron didn’t respond he just stared at the truck bed as it rumbled along the deserted city streets. The only sound Aaron could hear was the thumping of his heart in his ears. A low droning noise slowly began to overtake the steady tha-thump in his chest. It wasn’t until Dillon slapped him on the shoulder that he realized the low droning sound was actually Billy’s voice. Aaron was ripped suddenly back into the here and now by Dillon’s slap.

“You okay?” Billy asked.

“Yeah…” Aaron said looking around the transport truck. It had come to a stop “Yeah I’m fine. Are we here?”

“It’s a block over.” John said “Figured we shouldn’t announce ourselves just yet.”

Aaron nodded “Well lets get this over with.” It was as much a sigh as anything. He undid the flap at the back of the canvas top and jumped to the concrete below. Dillon thudded to the ground behind him.

“Which way is it?” Dillon asked.

“Gringos.” Mendoza grunted as he climbed out of the truck “None of you have a sense of direction.” he started walking off in the direction to Kaplan’s camp.

Walking through the street would have been suicide so the next five minutes was nothing but the four men vaulting over chain-link and picket fences and running through untended backyards. They were moving fast enough to outrun the walking dead but also moving quietly with deliberately placed footsteps to avoid giving the walking corpses a reason to chase them in the first place. Mendoza came to a stop and pointed at a building two houses up from where they were standing.

“That’s it.” he said as he checked that the silencer was firmly attached to his rifle.

“We might have to clear out the street in front of the house and bring the truck up.” Billy said

“From what Rebecca said the people in her group might not be able to jump those fences and will slow us down.”

Aaron nodded “Yeah, once we get this situation dealt with John and Dillon you two will come get the truck and meet the rest of us out front.”

The foursome quietly transitioned from the shadows in the backyard and out into the street.  
The sun had finally set and nothing but the lowlight of the moon picked out the sluggish movements of the undead against the dormant buildings and children’s jungle-gyms that seemed to litter every other backyard. At a quick glance there were about six walkers ambling around the abandoned street. It was muscle memory now. Aaron brought his rifle up and squeezed off a quick three round burst into the face of the nearest walker, punching an entry wound just below the right eye and causing a fountain of black gore to erupt from a much larger exit wound from the back of the thing’s skull.

He didn’t even think as he settled his sights over the head of the next target, and the next one, and the next. The muted tap-tap-tap of the suppressed rifles the foursome was using made an eerie symphony with the gurgling moans, wet smacks and hollow thuds emitted by the undead as they were encountered and dealt with. Just like everywhere else they went in the city, the stench of the death was an ever present backdrop. It was seconds before the street was devoid of the dead, but that could change at any moment. They moved quickly up the street towards the house.

Aaron peered through a window only to have his vision blocked by a dark bed sheet hung over the window. The dim glow of a gas lamp filtered through the fabric of the sheet. He could make out movement on what appeared to be a couch but he couldn’t tell who was making the movement.

“Ok, they’re in there.” He whispered as they moved to the front door. He looked at the three men behind him and exhaled. He brought his fist down hard on the door “Albany PD! We’re searching for survivors!”

He only had to repeat himself one more time before the door was thrown open. A skinny old man wearing a veteran’s cap was standing on the other end of the threshold. His milky eyes lit up with something akin to hope as he took in the sight of three cops and a soldier standing before him. A loud thud resounded somewhere out of Aaron’s field of view as someone rushed down the stairs.

“What the fuck did you open the door for?!” a man started yelling “They may be bandits wanting to raid us for supplies.”

The door was flung open and a much younger and more physically fit man stood before Aaron. He pointed a snub-nosed .38 revolver at the foursome. It was automatic, Aaron’s left hand latched on to the wrist of Kaplan’s gun hand and jerked it out firing range of his team while his right hand balled into a fist, leaving his rifle to dangle on it’s sling. His fist came up and impacted Kaplan in his throat.

The man began coughing and grasping at his throat with his free hand. It took very little effort on Aaron’s part to remove the revolver from his grasp. Aaron pocketed the revolver and returned his grip to his rifle before shoving Kaplan into the house. Kaplan landed on his back with a hard crack, coughing and sputtering as he massaged his throat. The old veteran raised his hands and stepped aside as the four men flooded into the house.

“Mendoza secure the door. Billy go check for other’s upstairs. Dillon you go check the kitchen, I’ll stay here with these two.” Aaron ordered. As his team fanned out to perform their tasks he pointed his rifle at the old man “You what’s your name?”

“Shaun Turner, Gunnery Sergeant Shaun Turner.”

“Take a seat on the couch, I’m not going to hurt you.” Aaron said as he kneeled down and restrained Kaplan with a pair of zipties.

Turner sat down, still keeping his hands visible, while Aaron lifted a still coughing Kaplan onto the couch next to him. Kaplan turned his head towards Turner, his eyes streaming “You stupid old fuck.” he rasped “See what you’ve done, I’m the only one here able to protect you people. You’ve killed everyone.”

Aaron brought his gloved fist down into the side of Kaplan’s face. The knuckle-guards on his glove impacted the man’s skull, breaking the man’s orbital bone. The flesh around Kaplan’s left eye began to swell rapidly and blood flowed freely from a cut that had been opened up just above his eyebrow.

“You don’t talk unless I tell you to.” Aaron yelled at him. Dillon came back into the room with a much smaller and skinnier man who must have been in his late forties. His appearance and build screamed teacher.

“Found him in the kitchen. He was hiding in a small nook between the fridge and the wall.” Dillon grunted in amusement “It was quite a feat getting into that little space.”

“What’s your name?” Aaron asked him.

“Connor.” the man stammered as he kept his hands out in front of him.

“Take a seat and don’t move. We aren’t here to hurt anyone.”

“Then what are you here for?!” Kaplan yelled.

Aaron hit him again “Did I say you could talk?” Aaron hit him once more to get his point across. Dillon eyed over the old man sitting next to Kaplan and the old man eyed him back.

“Army?” Dillon asked him pointing at his cap.

“Marines.”

“I’ll try not to hold it against you.”

“Door’s secure.” Mendoza appeared in the living room.

“Go help Billy clear the upstairs.” Aaron said as he handed his rifle to Dillon to hold. Mendoza  
jogged up the stairs and Aaron squatted down so he and Kaplan were eyelevel. “I don’t know what kind of man you think you are, but I know you aren’t the great protector you claim to be.”

“You don’t know fucking jack about me.” Kaplan roared “I’ve done nothing but keep these people safe.”

“That’s not what Rebecca says.” Aaron growled “Where are the girls?”

Kaplan’s face went red with anger “That bitch! I’ll fucking kill her!” Aaron hit him with the hardest punch yet, his large fist impacted the restrained man’s ribcage, once, twice, three times. Kaplan doubled over.

“I’m only going to ask one more time.” Aaron had learned long ago that his voice could take on a very menacing tone that he could use to intimidate with. “Where are the girls?”

“Fuck you, fuck Rebecca and fuck those two girls! I should have killed them weeks ago.”  
Aaron pulled his pistol from his thigh holster and hit Kaplan hard on the skull with the grip of the gun. A second cut opened up along his scalp and he slumped over sideways on the couch.

“Is he dead?” Connor asked slowly. When Aaron turned around and looked at him the skinny man flinched out of fear that he would be struck next.

“No.” Aaron replied “He’s out cold.”

Slow thumping on the steps made Aaron and the others look up at the staircase. Billy was helping a woman down the stairs. She was bleeding from her face. Anger welled up inside Aaron and he looked down at Kaplan on the couch. The urge to put the barrel of his pistol to the man’s head and pull the trigger was as strong as it ever was. Billy helped her down the stairs with John right behind the two of them.

“Aaron this is Victoria.” He said as he set her down in one of the chairs in the living room.

“Can she tell us where the girls are, Kaplan hasn’t been as cooperative as I’d hoped he be.” Aaron said pointing to the unconscious, bleeding mass on the couch.

“I can talk.” Victoria said as she fixed her gaze on Kaplan. “Yes I can tell you where they are, actually I’ll show you.”

She tried to get up but Billy put a hand on her shoulder. “Just sit down and relax, you tell us where the girls are and we’ll get them out and take you and three back to our camp like your friend asked us to.”

“Wait a damn minute, you aren’t going to take us?” Shaun exclaimed.

“I had planned on taking you if you wanted.” Aaron said “But neither of you have been exactly forthcoming with the location of the girls, which leads me to believe you only have your own interests in mind. We don’t need those kind of people at our camp.”

“We look out for each other.” Billy said “Whether we want to or not.”

“Put a gun in my hand and I’ll watch your back if you watch mine.” Shaun said standing up.

Dillon put his hand up “I suggest you take a seat old timer, wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt who doesn’t need to.”

“The kids are over there in that closet just before you get to the kitchen.” Victoria said to Billy.

“Are you alright?” He asked her as Aaron and Dillon headed towards the indicated closet.  
Victoria nodded her head “I was an ER nurse, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be ok.”

Billy looked at her and gave a slow nod of his head and turned to John “Keep an eye on everyone, I’m going to help Aaron and soldier-boy.”

He walked off in the same direction and found the two men huddled in front of a closet door. It was secured with a thick latch and large padlock. Dillon was staring at it closely.

“Yeah, this lock isn’t the lowest quality item at your local hardware store but it isn’t the best either.” He jingled the lock in his hand “A good hit from a rifle butt shouldn’t have any problem breaking this thing.”

“Bust the lock.” Aaron said holstering his pistol.

“Are they in their?” Billy asked.

“They aren’t responding to anything we say or ask.” Aaron said, his voice had a slight worried tone to it. “But then again you wouldn’t be very social after being locked in a closet for almost three weeks.”

“Girls, if you can hear me I need you to stand back ok?” Dillon said as he gripped his rifle two-handed and lined the butt of the weapon up with the lock.

He brought the rifle down on the lock and a much louder metallic clang that Aaron would have preferred echoed down the hallway and into the rest of the house. He hit the lock two more times with the rifle before the lock gave way to the force of the blows. Dillon grabbed hold of the lock and removed it from the door. Aaron gripped the door knob and pulled the door open and shined his flashlight into the darkness.


	4. Chapter Four: Homemakers

## Chapter Four: Homemakers

For the second time that day it was the smell that hit Aaron first.

It wasn’t the stink of the undead that had made him recoil involuntarily but rather the stench of human waste filtering out from a pail that was situated in the far corner of the closet. He wasn’t the only one to be caught off guard by the unexpected smell, Dillon and Billy each took a step back and turned their heads away from the closet as the stench hit them in turn. Aaron could see movement in the closet but it was too dark in the house for him to see the girls and there physical state. He clicked on his flashlight and shined it into the closet. The beam of light instantly revealed the two young faces of the girls they had come to rescue.

Almost instantly that same primal anger that had felt so foreign to Aaron just a few moments earlier overcame him again. It suddenly seemed to him that a bullet wasn’t worth wasting on Fred Kaplan and that he deserved a far more messy and brutal end.

The two girls moved their hands up into the path of the light and squinted up at the three men, one was a small blonde haired girl, the other was equally sized with mousy brown hair. Aaron knelt down on one knee and tried to make his naturally aggressive voice seem unnaturally friendly.

“Hey, we’re police officers and we just want to make sure you’re ok.” he said as gently as he could “Are either of you hurt?” The girls just stared up at him, the distrust very evident in their eyes. “My name is Aaron, my friends here are Billy and Dillon.” he tried “You mind telling us your names?”

The brown haired girl looked at her friend and back up at Aaron as if trying to gauge whether or not he was dangerous. She seemed to make up her mind and moved a few inches closer to him.

“My name is Kayli.” she said “Are you really a police officer?”

“Yes, me and Billy are police officers, Dillon is from the Army.”  
Kayli looked at the other two men with the same appraising gaze she had caste on Aaron

“You came here to check on us?”

“Your friend Rebecca was worried about you so she asked us to come and get you.”

“Rebecca?” the girls in the closet seemed to perk up at the mention of her name “She found us in our school, but we haven’t seen her for a while.”

The other little girl seemed to reach the same decision as Kayli “Rebecca was nice, she brought us food even though that man told her not to.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about that man anymore.” Aaron said as he slowly extended his hand towards Kayli and her friend “You mind telling me your name?”

“Trina.” the girl replied.

Kayli grabbed onto Aaron’s hand and he slowly guided her out of the closet before extending his hand to Trina. She stared at it hesitantly for a few seconds before slowly reaching out and grabbing it. The two girls stared at Billy and he gave him his trademark grin. They actually smiled back at him. Dillon however was a much more intimidating presence with his large build and large rifle cradled in his arms and Kayli and Trina gave him a cautious glance.

“Don’t worry about him.” Billy said stepping slightly between the girls and Dillon “He isn’t as mean as he looks.”

Trina didn’t look like she believed him.

Aaron closed the door to the closet and turned to the girls “Ok I need the two of you to go sit with Victoria, we have some things that need to be sorted out before we can leave.”

Dillon led the way back to the living room followed by Billy who was in turn flanked by Kayli and Trina. Aaron took a few seconds to collect himself before heading out to the living room. He couldn’t allow himself to lose it in front of the girls and frighten them. When he emerged into the living room the girls where sitting on either side of Victoria. He motioned to Billy, Dillon and John.

“Here’s what I want you guys to do.” He said as he pointed to Billy and Dillon. “I need you to check the surrounding houses for clothing, anything clean that will fit those girls. Pillows and blankets and any meds you can find would also help. John go get the truck, I’ll stay here and keep an eye on our VIPs.”

“Are we taking those two with us?” John pointed to Connor and Shaun who were seated on the couch on either side of a still unconscious Kaplan.

“I’ll think about it.” Aaron replied. His teammates exited the house without any further questions and Aaron was left with all eyes on him. He turned to Shaun and Connor “The two of you start stripping this house of supplies, if you can manage that I consider bringing you with us.”

“If we say no are you going to beat us?” Shaun asked his voice was laced with sarcasm and defiance.

“Only if you try something stupid.” Aaron turned to face Victoria and the girls.

____________________

 

The world began to transform from a thick sheet of blackness into a swirling vortex of muted colors as Kaplan as he slowly came to from the blow to his head. He couldn’t immediately recall how he had become unconscious and what had been the cause for the throbbing pain in the back of his head. He could hear things going on around him, voices that had become blurred like the blobs that dominated his field of vision. They slowly came into focus and he saw something that made his blood boil. The two girls who he had locked up as a security measure were out in the open and they were clinging to that bitch of a doctor Victoria Lawrence. Kaplan also took immediate notice of how there was a very distinct lack of men in black body armor in the room.

Just the one that had beat him into unconsciousness.

It all came back to him in a sudden rush. He remembered how four men had pounded on the door to their apartment and then flooded into the building after the door was opened. They had pointed their guns at him and handcuffed him and beat on him. And it was all because of the bitch Rebecca Ames.

Kaplan didn’t move his body so much as an inch. He didn’t want the cop to know he was awake just yet. He scanned the area around him for something he could grab with his feet. Suddenly he was looking into the weathered gaze of Shaun Turner. Kaplan felt a jolt of fear shoot through his heart. Turner would give him up to the cop and Kaplan was certain of it. Shaun grabbed the knife he had been using to cut up his spam dinner with, a metal steak knife, and stuck his hand under the couch cushion. He worked the knife between Kaplan’s wrists and gave a quick, hard tug of the knife and cut the plastic restraints. The old veteran then fed the utensil into Kaplan’s unrestrained hands. He nodded his head subtly and crossed his arms.

The cop was none the wiser.

Kaplan shut his eyes to maintain the illusion of unconsciousness.

____________________

 

Aaron heard a rustling sound from behind him and turned to see Connor climbing up off the couch. He made eye contact with the middle-aged teacher.

“My chances of survival are relatively higher with you than they are here.”

“Kiss ass.” Shaun groaned.

Aaron surmised that irritability must run in all military personnel, though his conclusion was based on only his interactions with Dillon and Shaun. He ignored the old man nonetheless.

“Start upstairs with pillows and blankets. Any and all clothing you find wouldn’t hurt either.”  
Connor nodded his head and made it halfway across the living room before Victoria let out a piercing scream. “LOOK OUT.”

Before Aaron could follow the direction her index finger was pointing he felt a large mass jump him from behind. Aaron heard his pistol slide across the hardwood floor as he fell. He managed to land on his side and was able to look up and see Kaplan straddling him. The restrains on his wrists were cut and he was holding a knife of some sort.

“You really fucked up.” Kaplan growled. “You and that bitch!”

Aaron let out a frustrated growl and drove his elbow into Kaplan’s stomach making him double over and lower his head within Aaron’s striking range. Aaron rammed his forehead against Kaplan’s and dislodged the crazed man from his straddling position. Aaron began searching for his weapon and saw the handle sticking out from under the couch. He rose up to his feet and made for the gun. Kaplan managed to wrap his arms around Aaron’s legs and trip him up. Aaron caught the side of the coffee table with the right side of his forehead as he fell. Something hot and sticky began rolling down the side of his face.

He began to shake the cobwebs from his mind and looked up to see Kaplan pointing the recently confiscated snub-nosed revolver at his chest. Aaron raised his hands and slowly stood up, feeling shaky. He knew he had a concussion, it wasn’t the first time he’d ever had one.

“Kaplan put the gun down.” He tried to make his voice as reasoning as possible,

“No! No!” Kaplan screamed at him “You came in here and pointed your guns at me with every intention of ending my life. You can kiss your ass goodbye.”  
He pulled the trigger.

The bullet impacted Aaron’s chest with enough force to knock him back on his ass. The back of his head cracked against wall hard and he slowly slid down the surface and landed in an upright, unmoving slump.

Victoria began pleading with Kaplan to not hurt the girls almost instantly.

Kaplan walked over to her and hit her hard. “You shut up!” he pointed the gun at her “I’m the one who found you and Rebecca living inside a tractor trailer truck on the highway a month ago. I brought you here where you were safe. You had food and protection from the walkers because of me!” he yelled “How do you repay me? You question my every move, you ignore my every order and overrule every decision I make. Well news flash lady this is my show not yours and it damn sure isn’t Rebecca’s.” he moved his gaze to Kayli and Trina “You two did all of this to save two little girls who would have destroyed all the safety I created. I’m going to show you what happens when you try to fuck me over. You’re going to stand there and watch while I end this problem like I should have weeks ago.”

Victoria pushed the children behind her. Kaplan let out a sinister laugh.

“You think I give a dam about whether or not you live or die.” he cocked the hammer on the revolver again. “Shaun go grab that little treacherous shit of a teacher. Might as well weed out the weak ones all at once.”

Shaun walked over to the cowering man and tossed him to the floor with surprising strength for a man his age.

“You’re welcome by the way.” Shaun said halfheartedly.

“Whatever.” Kaplan grumbled.

____________________

 

“Not finding much that we can use.” Dillon sighed as he walked through the already ransacked upstairs bedroom of a house two houses over from Rebecca’s camp. “This place was either picked clean by looters or packed up by the people who lived here when the left for the safe zone.”

“Found a couple cans of hash in a cabinet downstairs.” Billy said as he walked into the room.

“How the fuck are we going to cook it?”

“We open the can and cook it over a fire.”

Dillon eyed the can “You think the smell of cooking food will attract biters?”  
Billy shrugged “We might have to risk it eventually. MREs aren’t going to last forever.”

“They’ll last long enough.” Dillon said as he scratched his scruffy cheek “Did you check the basement?”

“I was hoping you did.”

“Why?”

“I hated basements before the dead started walking and I damn sure aint gonna like them now that we can’t even turn the lights on to see where we’re going or. Who knows what the fuck is down there.”

Dillon let out an unamused chuckle “Pansy ass.” He shouldered past Billy and headed  
downstairs “Come on, I’ll hold your hand if it makes you feel better.”

“Ha fucking ha, asshole.” Billy growled.

The two men found the door to the basement and turned on the flashlight attachments on their rifles. They did little to penetrate the inky blackness in the stairwell. Dillon nodded at Billy to go first.

“Fuck you I’m not going first.”

“Give me the damn can of hash.” Dillon said sharply.

Billy reached into his thigh pocket and handed him the can. Dillon chucked it down the stairs as hard as he could. The metal can bounced off the concrete loudly. Dillon raised his hand to signal to Billy to be quiet. They both stood there listening for anything: a soft guttural moan or the wet gurgling sound that often accompanied the presence of a biter.

“I don’t hear anything do you?” Dillon asked.

“No.” Billy began sniffing the air “More importantly I don’t smell anything so I think we’re good….but I’m still not going first.”

“How the hell did you ever get on a SWAT team.”

“Lucky for me they had low standards when I joined up.”

“Obviously.”

Dillon took the first step and began to make his way down the narrow staircase in a cautious manner. He couldn’t scan left to right with his rifle due to the confined space of the walls. Every creak of the wooden stairs seemed to be amplified in the close quarters. His pulse began to beat in his ears. He could hear Billy slowly stepping down the staircase behind him. Dillon wondered how Billy must be feeling walking down here, his own pulse was elevated and he wasn’t afraid of basements so he could only imagine what Billy was going through.  
The thought amused him. His feet found concrete a few seconds later and he had more room to maneuver the flashlight on his rifle.

“Moving right.” he whispered as he broke off in that direction once he cleared the staircase. His light reflected off of something as he moved the beam across the wall. He scanned back towards the gleam and automatically depressed the trigger and let out a startled yelp at the same time. The muted _pfft, pfft, pfft_ of Dillon’s suppressed rifle shooting off a quick burst and the yelp made Billy come running.

“What?!” Billy said as he scanned his rifle along the wall and came to a stop at what Dillon had just shot. He started laughing immediately. A mounted deer head now contained three nicely placed bullet holes. “Congratulations you bagged yourself a ten pointer.”

“Fuck off.” Dillon said as he moved closer to the trophy feeling slightly embarrassed. He bumped into a waist high bar and moved down it’s length until he found the swinging gate and moved behind the solid oak drinking surface. He shined his light along the shelves at the bottom and found only glassware. He squatted down and took a deeper look into the shelves and this time his light reflected off of a piece of glassware that contained an amber colored substance. “Hah I think I might have found something worthwhile here.” he said as he pulled out a nearly full bottle of Jack.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Billy exclaimed.

He turned around and moved off towards the left side of the basement and shone his light along the wall. It reflected off of something made of glass but it wasn’t a window or anything like that. As he drew closer the object seemed to resemble a display case of some sort. He shined his light into the case and felt his grin widen drastically.

“I found some guns over here.” he smashed the glass with the butt of his rifle. Dillon arrived at his side and shined his light into the case.

“Nice hardware.” he said approvingly.

Billy reached in and pulled out a matte-black pistol that had ivory grips. “A Nineteen-Eleven, forty-five caliber.” Billy said after inspecting the gun. “Full clip.”

“Dibs.” Dillon said straight faced.

“What is this high school?” Billy asked “Sorry this is going to Aaron, he used to have one similar to it but he pawned so he could get a wedding ring for his girl almost eight years ago.”

“He was married?” Dillon asked.

Billy took on a somber face “It’s his story to tell so ask him.”

Dillon took the hint and grabbed another gun “Glock forty-caliber, this will suit me just fine.”  
“Just need to find some slugs for ‘em.”

Dillon squatted down “These display cases usually have a shelving unit to store that stuff.” he found the doorknob to the shelf and pulled it open and as he suspected there was a treasure trove of ammunition boxes. “Thirty-Eights, Forties, Forty-Fives and Nine mills.” he said happily.

Billy grabbed a box of .45 ammo and opened it. “This one’s just over half full and it looks like there are a few more boxes so this ought to make him happy.”

“Extra clips to.” Dillon said pulling out several of the bullet clips “Do you have something to carry this shit in?”

“Sorry but I left my purse in the car.” Billy said sarcastically. “I’ll go grab a pillowcase from upstairs. You start cleaning everything out of the display case.” Two minutes later Billy returned with a large pillowcase.

They threw everything inside the large silk sack, with the exception of the 1911 pistol which  
Billy tucked into his waistband. The two headed back upstairs. They had just made it outside when they heard the gunshot.

“The fuck was that?” Billy asked.

“It was a truck backfiring.” Dillon said sarcastically “It was a fucking gunshot and it came from that woman’s camp. You think Aaron finished off that guy.”

Billy looked around and didn’t see the military truck anywhere. “No, John isn’t back yet so the girls have to still be inside and Aaron wouldn’t shoot someone in front of them.”

Billy took off running towards the house.

“Fuck.” Dillon grunted and raced after him.

____________________

 

Connor was visibly trembling now and Kaplan couldn’t help but laugh at the weaker man’s despair.

“You pissed your fucking pants yet?” he asked through his laughter “You look like you’re going to any minute now.”

“You don’t have to do this.” Victoria tried again “You can let us go and we’ll forget all about this.”

“That cop’s buddies wont forget about it though.” Kaplan growled. “Oh I cant wait for them to get back and see that I’ve killed their leader. Wont that be a surprise.”

“I hope you rot in hell.” Victoria tried to keep her voice even but failed. She couldn’t recall ever being as scared as she was at that particular moment. She had lived through so much only to be killed by a madman. Then she noticed it. The corner where Aaron had been laying was empty. Kaplan and Shaun had missed it as well since they were too busy dealing with their captives. Kayli and Trina pressed themselves tight against Victoria legs and she absently reached down and put her hands over their eyes. “But I hope _he_ makes you suffer first.”

Kaplan looked at her with a confused stare before her words sunk in. He wheeled around and went ghostly pale when noticed the spot where Aaron had been was now empty. He turned to Shaun. “You old fuck you didn’t watch him!?”

“I thought he was dead.”

“You idiot he had on armor, I was going to prolong his death and make him suffer!” Kaplan was beside himself “Find that fucking cop now!”

Aaron appeared from the shadows. Half his face was a deep crimson mess from the cut a few inches above his right eyebrow.

“You fucking found me.”

It was almost too quick for the human eye to see. Aaron jammed the barrel of his gun into Shaun’s abdomen and pulled the trigger three times. Before Kaplan could bring his revolver up and set his sights on his target Aaron’s large fist collided with Kaplan’s face once more on the bridge of his nose. Both Kaplan and Shaun hit the ground at almost the same time. The front door to the house was kicked in almost a second later.

Billy and Dillon took a look at the scene and couldn’t keep the confused looks off their faces.

“It’s about fucking time.” Aaron grunted. He was breathing heavy and favoring his right side

“Handcuff that fucker to the radiator and drag that old piece of shit next to him. I want Kaplan to have a nice surprise when he wakes up.”

Shaun was still breathing. His wrinkled hands were clutching at the increasingly large red stain on his shirt. He wouldn’t last much longer and Aaron and his group knew that once he died it was only a matter of time before he came back as something worse. A perfect way for Kaplan to meet his end.

“What did he do?” Dillon asked pointing to Shaun.

“He freed Kaplan and got me shot.” Aaron yelled “Now fucking do what I ask.” he sat down on the couch and began removing his vest.

Billy was at his side in a second “You were shot?!”

“Goddamnit all!” Aaron yelled “Take care of Kaplan and Turner. Take them upstairs, handcuff Kaplan to the radiator in one of the bedrooms and throw Turner in there with him and shut the door when you leave. If you don’t do it then I will!”

Billy visibly recoiled at the angry look that overcame his friends face. “Yeah we’re on it.” He and Dillon grabbed hold of the two downed men and began dragging them up the stairs. Victoria settled next to Aaron and began helping him take his vest and undershirt off.

“I’m fine, go take care of the girls.”

“Sorry you need to be evaluated.” Victoria said. Her training as an ER nurse kicked in. She began poking around the right side of his torso and the large bruise that had formed after the vest soaked up the bullet hit. “Can you breath alright?”

He nodded.

“Good, that means your ribs weren’t broken and you didn’t puncture a lung. Even if you had I wouldn’t be able to treat it, so consider yourself lucky on that one.” She moved onto his head wounds. “That cut is going to need stitches and that’s not going to be fun without a numbing agent. Are you nauseous?”

“No.”

“Dizzy?”

“A little bit yeah.”

“You might have a concussion.”

“I’m pretty certain I do.”

“Had one before?”

“Once.”

“Well whatever you did for your group you wont be doing it anytime soon.” Victoria said

“You’re on the injured roster now.”

“Sorry but we cant afford that.”

“Not your call. Are you the man in charge?”

“No, James is in charge but he needs me.” Aaron grunted.

“Well I’ll be having a conversation with him once we get to your camp.” Victoria couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over his impressive muscular frame. It wasn’t very often she got a patient like him in the ER. She noticed a few lines of what must have been a large tattoo on the back of his right shoulder. “Lean forward for a second please.” she said.

Aaron didn’t argue and did as the doctor asked. She looked over his shoulder at the tattoo and gasped audibly. It must have made him remember that he had a tattoo back there because he sat back instantly.

“So you umm know Rebecca I take it?” she asked.

“No, didn’t know her before today.” Aaron said as he struggled to pull his black t-shirt back on.

“Well why do you have a tattoo of her on your shoulder.”

“First off that isn’t Rebecca and second it’s none of your business.” That was when he became aware of two sets of eyes staring him over the arm of the couch. Kayli and Trina both had concerned looks on their faces as they took in his battered appearance. “Can I help you?” he asked. His voice was a little more aggressive than he intended it to be.

“Are you going to be ok?” Kayli asked walking around to the front of the couch and climbing up next to him.

“Kayli sweetie I don’t think he wants to be bothered right now.” Victoria said but Aaron waved at her.

“It’s fine. And yes I’m going to be ok.” he said. “I’m just going to be in pain for awhile.”

Kayli leaned in and kissed him on the cheek “Thank you for saving us.”

He let his first real smile cross his face for the first time in almost six years “That makes all this worth it.”

Mendoza walked in through the door at that particular moment.

“Holy hell you got ten shades of shit kicked out of you man.” he said as he walked over to Aaron.

“Language.” Aaron and Victoria said in unison.

“Ok sorry, you look horrible, is that better?” he said with a sarcastic tone “The truck is out front and we can leave whenever you are ready.”

Dillon and Billy came downstairs.

“It's done.” Billy said as he noticed Mendoza “What did you do stop at Taco Bell? The fuck took you so long?”

“One of these days Billy you’re going to run across someone who isn’t as tolerant of your racism as I am.” Mendoza said with a small grin on his face.

“I’ll just have to win them over with my charm.”

“I’ll have to lend you some.”

Dillon threw a hand up “Hey can we cut the crap and get out of here. There are biters in the street and I don’t want to be here when they realize there is food within stumbling distance.”  
Aaron slowly rose off his feet and grabbed his gear. Billy grabbed Aaron’s rifle from where he left it against the wall. The four men that had entered the building left with four more people to add to the growing list of mouths they had to feed. Mendoza and Dillon climbed into the front of the vehicle while everyone else piled into the back.

“How many more of you are there?” Victoria asked as she settled down next to Billy.

Kayli crawled up on Aaron’s unbruised left side and nestled in against him. The injured SWAT cop found it odd to suddenly have a child latch onto him like that but he didn’t shoo her away.

“At our camp? Well if you count Rebecca there are two more of us.” Aaron said as he tried to keep the pain from showing in his voice.

“You said you were part of a large group looking for survivors.” Connor exclaimed.

“A ruse to get you guys to let us in.” Billy said eyeing over Victoria. She eyed him back in return. “It did the job.”

“You do have a safe place for us to go to right?”

“Yeah, plenty of space for everyone. We’ve got food for weeks so we’ll be good.”

“I hope Aaron isn’t one of your star players.” Victoria said.

“Why?” Billy asked.

“He isn’t going to be helping for awhile. He could exasperate his injuries and I wont be able to do anything about it.”

“How long will he be out for?”

“I can’t say I’ll have to check on him daily until he starts improving.”

“I’m fine.”

“But you could get worse and if that happens I’d rather it happen in camp where I can be of use instead of out here where no one can help you.” Victoria looked to Billy “You have to help me here.”

“I’ll talk with James about it when we get back.” Billy said “You’ll have to be there to.”

Aaron gave Billy a biting glare which Billy countered with his instantly disarming grin. Billy reached into his waistband and slid something across the bed of the truck towards Aaron. The gun came to a halt a few millimeters from Aaron’s fingers. He grabbed the gun and examined it and instantly felt tears trying to force their way out from behind his eyes.

“Where did you get this?”

“A gun collection we found in a basement.”

“You hate basements.”

“Which is why you should appreciate that burner all the more.” Billy grinned “Got some spare clips and ammo for it also.”

“Thanks Billy.”

The ride back to the compound was a quiet one after that. Billy reclined his head against the tarp that covered the rear of the truck and began dozing. Victoria snaked her arm around his and wrapped her other arm around Trina who was sleeping soundly next to her. Aaron couldn’t fall asleep he was in too much pain to be able to. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was stroking the head of the small girl curled up next to him. For some reason he couldn’t help but feel like that’s where that little girl belonged at that moment. He felt a surge of paternal protectiveness for the girl whom he had none for less than an hour. He couldn’t explain the feeling or where it had come from but he knew that it was there and it was real.  
Five minutes later the truck came to a bumpy stop at the gate to the condominium complex. Slowly everyone who had been sleeping rose from their slumber and climbed out of the back of the truck. Aaron was the last to exit the vehicle.

James was standing outside of the one cleared condo with his arms crossed. Victoria, with Trina and Kayli in tow, was the first one to greet him.

“You’re this James we heard about?”

“Yes ma’am that would be me.”

“Good I’d like to talk to you about Aaron.”

“Is he ok?” James asked as he watched the group of people stumble towards the condo.  
The darkness made it almost impossible to make anyone out. Victoria nodded her head though.

“He’s alive, he’s just hurt. He’s got a concussion and maybe bruised ribs. I don’t want him making runs into town for a while.”

“Excuse me ma’am but who are you and what makes you qualified to make those medical diagnoses?” James asked.

“I’m Victoria Lawrence and I was an ER nurse.”

“I’ll just have to give Aaron the once over myself but I’ll keep your opinions in mind when I make my decision. For now though you should go tend to your friend, her ankle is messed up and you can go and assess how well we treated it.”

Victoria didn’t like being blown off but went inside with the two girls and went in search of Rebecca. Billy, Connor, Dillon, Mendoza and Aaron made it to the front of the condo and greeted James.

“Hell Aaron the doctor wasn’t kidding.” he said when he laid eyes on Aaron. “You need to get that cut patched up.”

“Victoria is going to take care of it. We just need a needle and thread.” Billy said with a grin

“I’m sure we can find one in that condo somewhere.”

“You’re a dick.” Aaron said sourly. He wasn’t looking forward to having his skin sewn back together without a numbing agent.

“That may be so, but at least someone wont be playing seamstress with my face.”

“That can be fixed.” Aaron growled.

“Alright, alright everyone get inside. Mendoza get the door boarded up.”

Mendoza turned to Billy instantly “No Home Depot jokes.”

“The thought never crossed my mind.” Everyone laughed as they walked into the condo.

James introduced himself to Connor and shook the teacher’s hand. “Aaron you get the guest room upstairs, Victoria and the girls are going to take the master bedroom with Rebecca. The rest of us will sleep down here in the living room and dining room. Tomorrow Billy and I will clear out the other houses while Dillon and John work on the gate. Aaron you’re out until the doc says you’re cleared. ”

Aaron wasn’t going to argue with anyone over taking the guest room and started climbing up the stairs. James had apparently found some battery powered lanterns and had placed them on the walls for some light. The hallway was illuminated in a ghostly orange color that gave Aaron goosebumps. Victoria called out to him from the doorframe of the master bedroom and made him jump.

“Sorry.” she said “I didn’t mean to startle you, but I found a sewing kit under the bed in here and I want to fix that cut on your forehead up.”

“Great, sounds fun.” he said halfheartedly as he walked into the master bedroom.

“Sit on that chair.” Victoria said pointing to a comfortable looking chair in the corner of the room close to the bed.

Rebecca was on the bed with a little girl sleeping soundly on either side of her. “Oh my God. What happened to you?” she exclaimed as she maneuvered off the bed without waking either Kayli or Trina.

“He got an ass whooping.” Victoria said flatly. “He had his head slammed into a coffee table, got shot and then cracked his head on the wall….in that order.”

“You have a way with words.” Aaron said “Not to be rude but can we get this over with?”

Victoria nodded “Oh yeah we can get this over with, fifteen minutes and you should be good to go.” she said as she grabbed a needle and thread from a box off the dresser. “Rebecca you’ll have to hold the flashlight so I can see what I’m doing.”

“I’m so sorry.” Rebecca said to Aaron as she grabbed the flashlight from Victoria “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Aaron sighed “But you owe me and I plan on collecting.”  
Rebecca smiled at him and he didn’t smile back.

“Ok.” Victoria sighed “I’d have preferred fishing line instead of thread but you gotta make do with whatcha have.” her voice was laden with the fake reassurance that most nurses applied to put their patients at ease.

It wasn’t working with Aaron. “Lets get this over with shall we.”

____________________

 

Kaplan began to stir once more. Almost instantly he began cursing the cop who had bested him again.

“I’m going to fucking kill you! Do you hear me you piece of shit!” he yelled downstairs.

He had no idea he was the only person in the house, at least the only living person. He heard the breathing first, a slow ragged gasping sound that made his blood run cold. He looked to his left and saw the prone body of Shaun Turner. A large patch of blood had congealed under him and his waxy skin was so pale it was almost luminescent in the darkness.

“Fuck, oh fuck no!” Kaplan yelled as he tried to back away. He stood up and ran for the door only to hear a metallic clang and feel a sharp jolt of fire race up his arm.  
He looked down in horror as he realized he was handcuffed to a radiator. He began pulling desperately at his wrist, planting his foot against the radiator for leverage. But it wasn’t working.

He knew he was running out of time. He knew what happened when someone died. It didn’t matter if you were bit or not you always came back as a mindless walker.

“I don’t want to die like this.” he exclaimed out loud “Please, please, please!”  
The body of Shaun Turner pulled itself up off the ground. The eyes had gone milky and the once sharp blue iris now resembled the hue of a well used and faded marble.

“Fuck!” Kaplan yelled and he pulled harder than ever at the handcuffs as the walker drew closer to him.

It appeared as if the thing that had once been Shaun Turner was now toying with him. It was taking agonizingly slow, stumbling steps and uttering bone chilling sounds as it’s teeth chattered together baying for his flesh. Kaplan looked around the room for anything within reach that he could use as a weapon. He made out the handle of a baseball bat under the bed. He kicked the walker and forced it back a few feet earning himself a few precious extra seconds. He had to use the tip of his boot to snag the bat and pull within reach of his unrestrained hand. He reached down and grabbed the wooden bat and waited for the walker to come close again.

“Come on you ugly shit, I’ll show that cop who the real man is!”

Shaun Turner stumbled within striking distance of Kaplan’s bat. The crazed security guard let loose with a wicked swing that connected just above the walker’s left temple. It let out an almost comical grunt as it fell to the floor. Enrage Kaplan began following through with strike after strike until there was nothing left but a greasy black smear where the walker’s head had once been.

The bat snapped in the process of the assault.

“That’ll show that fucking cop. Wait until he comes up here and see’s I’m still alive he’ll shit bricks…”

The door to the room creaked open. Kaplan turned his head in the direction of the door. He fell to his knees as a half dozen walkers poured into the room. A half dozen, quickly became a dozen and then twenty and thirty. They all seemed to fall on top of him at the same moment.

Fred Kaplan was engulfed by a flurry of teeth and claws. He was still alive when he watched a piece of his lower intestine get tossed through the air and land in a bloody heap on the floor next to him.


	5. Chapter Five: Relatioships

## Chapter Five: Relationships

 

Aaron decided he didn’t need the calendar that Dillon had come up with to tell that it was early July. The weather had become almost unbearably hot in the two weeks it had been since he and his team had rescued Rebecca, Victoria, Kayli, Trina and Connor from Fred Kaplan. The thermometers that they had placed on the exterior of the first condo in the complex had reached triple digits no less than five times in the last two weeks. It had gotten to the point where the supply run team, now consisting of Billy and James until Victoria cleared Aaron for active duty, didn’t wear the protective body armor that had served them so well against the biters.  
  
It pissed Aaron off that he had to sit around and wait for a doctor who couldn’t even run thorough tests on him to decide that his injuries had fully healed. He knew for a fact his concussion was gone but the damage from the gunshot he sustained was still unknown. Other than a large and nasty bruise on his right side accompanied by some tenderness, he felt perfectly fine. As much as he hated to admit it he was actually counting down the days until he could actually have a few hours away from Kayli. The little girl was intent on finding out everything about him and constantly bombarding him with questions. At first he had been alright with it but it had started to wear on him recently. He was also ashamed that he was slightly happy that the two girls had come down with a pretty bad cold and had been bed ridden for the last two days.  
  
He was worried for them at the same time though and found himself hoping for Billy to return from a run to a pharmacy up the road with the medicine Victoria had sent him for. He hated sitting in his condo, mostly on his own now because Billy had practically moved into Victoria and Rebecca’s condo, flip-flopping between hoping the girls remained sick just a little while longer and willing for them to get better. All Aaron wanted was to get back out there and contribute to his group.  
  
And get away from Rebecca Ames.  
  
He had been certain he could have handled the similarities between her and the woman he had lost, but only after a few days those similarities had overwhelmed him. He couldn’t so much as look at her without feeling the tear in his heart reopen and throb in his chest. What made it worse was that both Victoria and Billy thought bringing he and Rebecca together was a good idea. He didn’t want to be in another relationship and he was one-hundred percent certain that this was not a world to forge new relationships in anyway. What use was it to fall for someone only to have them ripped from your life days, weeks or months later if you were lucky.  
  
Still though he couldn’t forget that paternal defensiveness he had felt for Kayli when she had climbed up next to him on the ride back to the condominium complex. He was afraid that he had made a connection with that little girl and that the connection was only dooming one of them to the pain of loss, whether it was him losing her or vice versa it was only going to end badly.  
  
He was sitting on the stoop outside his condo in the process of sweating away his muscle mass in the hot afternoon heat and dwelling on all the loss that had plagued him throughout his life when the large, looming shadow of Dillon Mane fell across him. He looked up at the mohawk clad Army Ranger. Dillon had removed his body armor and tactical shirt and was down to a sweat stained, army green tank top.  
  
“Can I help you Staff Sergeant?” Aaron asked looking back down at his size fourteen steel-toed boots.  
  
“Yeah actually.” Dillon said pulling out a small notepad and Pilot pen from his pocket “Billy was supposed to weapon and ammo inventory today and I was wondering if you wanted to do it.  
I’ve noticed you getting a little stir-crazy.”  
  
“You have huh?” Aaron said in a dull and uninterested tone.  
  
“Yep we all have. I expect I’d be feeling the same way as you if I were in the same position. Feeling like your unable to do anything in a bad situation only makes the situation that much worse for the injured person.”  
  
Aaron looked back up at Dillon and grabbed the pad and pen “I guess counting how many bullets and guns we have is a start.”  
  
“There you go, think of it as the first step on your road to recovery.”  
  
“It’s shaping up to be a long ass road.” Aaron sighed as he climbed to his feet. He hated that his department had issued the SWAT teams black clothing. Even in his own sweat soaked tank top he felt like he was roasting. “I’ll get this done in a bit.”  
  
Dillon walked back towards the front gate he had repaired in their first week at the complex. He had found a large piece of flat steel that he had placed on a set of rollers inside of the cinderblock fence that surrounded the complex. Dillon had managed to fashion a locking mechanism on the left side of the gate so that the steel plate was held in place and had to be opened via pulley from inside the compound. Aaron went in the opposite direction from Dillon and headed towards the far end of the complex and the repurposed maintenance shed that now housed all of their ammunition, weapons and supplies. The door was sealed up by a combination lock and Aaron had to think to recall the combo.  
  
_34-22-28.  
_  
He recited the number in his head a few times before entering the combo into the lock. It disengaged from the thick chain with a nice, crisp thunk and Aaron pulled the old metal door open. He clicked the pen in his hand and pulled a box of pistol ammo from a shelf and opened it, counted the bullets in the tray, resealed the box and placed it back on the shelf. He scribbled something on the notepad: one box of 9mm pistol ammo, 26 rounds.  
  
He repeated the process several more times, finding at least eight boxes of 9mm ammo that averaged around twenty rounds in each box, four boxes of .45 caliber ammunition for the Ruger 1911 and two S &W .45 revolvers Dillon and Billy had found in basement. Those boxes had a combined total of thirty-two rounds. Next was two boxes of 12 gauge shotgun shells that had been found in the gun safe under the bed in the first condo they had cleared out, along with the two Mossberg pump action shotguns. Those two boxes totaled a combined twenty-eight shells. The caliber that head plenty of was the 5.56 rounds used in the M4 carbines, the group had scavenged so many spare rifle magazines and clips from the military checkpoint that they had at least three hundred rounds totaled up for that caliber. They had one box of .40 cal ammo for the Glock pistol found in the basement, it was the only box in the  
maintenance shed that was full. They were down to fifteen rounds for the .223 variety used in the Police issue AR-15 rifles. He made a note for the supply team to search out hunting and sporting-goods stores that would carry that type of ammunition.  
  
He moved onto the bag containing their weapons: three M4 carbines with varying attachments, plus the five he and the others were using made a total of 8, the four AR-15 rifles that he and his SWAT team had used before, during and after the Outbreak, six Berretta M9 pistols, one SIG P26 pistol, plus the three that Billy, James and John had made a total of four, two Smith & Wesson .45 caliber revolvers, two Mossberg pump action shotguns, the 1911 Aaron had in his waistband and the Glock 40 Dillon was carrying all added up to twenty-eight guns.  
  
A quick peak in the MRE boxes revealed that they were still well stocked on food to the point that he didn’t have to tally up how many boxes there were just yet. Whoever did the inventory next week could do that.  
  
He reached into his waistband and pulled out the black Ruger 1911 and removed the clip to check if the magazine was full or not. A quick count totaled up to nine bullets in the fourteen round clip so he helped himself to five of the .45 rounds and readjusted the total on his notepad. The watch on his wrist indicated that he had killed about an hour of his day on the mind numbingly boring task he had been given. He reloaded his pistol, clicked the pen in his hand and put the notepad in his pocket before exiting and relocking the shed again.  
The large Ford F350 pickup was sitting just inside the courtyard of the complex and that meant that Billy had returned from his run to the pharmacy. Aaron glanced around looking for Dillon but couldn’t find him right away so he decided to go and see how Billy faired and to check on Kayli and Trina. As much as it appealed to him to be the antisocial misfit of the group at that moment he decided it was better to play the concerned leader, because whether he wanted to be or not that was what he was. James relied on him and Dillon to get things done and in turn he and Dillon relied on Billy and John. Aaron and Billy got the supplies, Dillon and John kept the camp safe and James made sure everything worked like a well oiled machine. He couldn’t let his injuries or grievances over Rebecca and the two girls ruin that well oiled machine any more than they already had.  
  
The door was open so Aaron just walked in and poked his head around the corner and into the living room. Billy was laying down on the couch with his tactical cap pulled over his eyes. His heavy breathing suggested he was sound asleep. Aaron walked over to him and rapped his large knuckles on his friends stomach. Billy sat up instantly and his hand went automatically to the gun on his waistband. It wasn’t until he saw Aaron that he relaxed.  
  
“Fuck man don’t do that!” Billy said as he exhaled deeply.  
  
“You’ve been gone for four hours, the pharmacy isn’t even ten minutes away.” Aaron said.  
  
“The hell took you so long?”  
  
“It’s getting bad out there man, the streets are getting crowded with biters, their forming packs or some shit like that.”  
  
“No shit?”  
  
“No shit.”  
  
Aaron sat down in a chair across from the couch. “Well at least you made it back in one piece.”  
  
Billy nodded “It got hairy here and there, but I came through…again.”  
  
“Why didn’t you take James?”  
  
Billy looked around the room “There is a reason we call him ‘The Old Man’ he doesn’t move like he used to. After we’ve been out in this heat for a few hours he can barely breath, hell I’ve even had trouble keeping a quick pace in this weather. I was better off on my own this time.”  
  
“You got the meds for the girls?”  
  
Billy grabbed a plastic bottle filled with water off of the floor near the couch “Yeah, found some Barbie dolls in the toy isle along with some other playthings to keep them occupied.” He smiled at Aaron “I noticed how much Kayli clings to you and figured I’d get a kick out watching the two of you play with Barbie’s.”  
  
Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose “Don’t you have anything better to do than making my life miserable.”  
  
“Hey I’d rather be in here playing with dolls than out there with the biters Aaron. It’s fucking scary.”  
  
“What did I tell you about language when the girls are in the house?” Victoria exclaimed as she entered the room. A bottle of cough syrup was in her hand and she set it on the coffee table.  
  
“They’re upstairs and cant hear me.”  
  
“Well we heard you.” Rebecca said as she entered behind Victoria. She flashed Aaron a smile that couldn’t be describe as anything less than flirtatious. He gave her a small three fingered wave of acknowledgement as she settled down on the chair next to Aaron.  
  
“Kayli and Trina are going to be out for a while, you didn’t get the non-drowsy kind.” Victoria said.  
  
“Well sorry that’s what the pharmacist gave me when I asked his rotting corpse where the cold medicine was.” Billy retorted. “There wasn’t much in there anyway, but if you think you  
can do better you can go put your ass on the line next time to go and get it.”  
  
Aaron, Victoria and Rebecca stared at him. Things must have really been getting bad out there if Billy was that shaken by what he had seen on his run.  
  
“Is it bad out there?” Victoria asked almost instantly understanding.  
  
Billy nodded “The stench, you wouldn’t believe how bad the heat has made that foul smell that has lingered over the city for the last few months. The biters are leaving the safe zone in these massive packs and appearing in areas where they weren’t before.”  
  
“They’re running out of food in the center of the city.” Aaron said darkly “They must be looking for more.”  
  
“But they aren’t that smart.” Rebecca said “They cant know we’re out here.”  
  
“No but they cant but it only takes one biter bumping against our front gate to attract more biters. This place isn’t as safe as I hoped it was going to be.” Billy said.  
  
“That was before the biters started leaving the center of the city and pushing out further.” Aaron said “We just need to start looking for somewhere else.”  
  
Billy let out a grunt that was as much dismay as it was agreement “This place was my idea.”  
  
“That just means you don’t get to pick the next place.” Aaron let a rare grin cross his face as he slapped his friend’s knee “I’ve got to go find Dillon and give him the inventory list.”  
  
“You did inventory?” Rebecca asked.  
  
“I got tired of sitting on my ass.” Aaron rose up to his feet and started for the door “You should bring up this problem with packs of biters with James and see what he wants to do.”  
Billy nodded and Aaron disappeared outside. He turned his head to Rebecca. “You should follow him, keep him company tonight.”  
  
Rebecca’s face reddened a little and she smiled slightly “As much as I’d like to do that, I don’t think he likes me that much.”  
  
“He liked you enough to get shot while doing you a favor.” Victoria stated as she leaned her head on Billy’s shoulder.  
  
“Believe me when I say it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with his past.” Billy said “Ask him to tell you the story about the tattoo on the back of his shoulder. It’ll make sense to you after you hear it.”  
  
“Why don’t you tell me the story?”  
  
“Because it isn’t my story to tell.” Billy sighed “I don’t think he’ll take that much convincing.”  
  
Rebecca started to rub her hands on her thighs “You think so?”  
  
“I’ve known Aaron since we were in elementary school.” Billy said “So yeah I’m pretty sure.”  
  
Rebecca chewed on her bottom lip for a few seconds as she thought it over. She rose up from the chair and almost ran outside. Billy and Victoria started chuckling.  
  
“So you’ve taken care of the girls, you’ve taken care of Aaron and Rebecca…that just leaves one more thing for you to do?” Victoria said putting her lips close to Billy’s ear.  
  
“Yeah? What would that be?” he asked turning his head to face her.  
She gave him a smile that rivaled his own “Me.”  
  
____________________  
  
  
Aaron had found Dillon over by the guard perch that he and John had set up near the gate entrance. He handed over the notepad and pen and told Dillon that if he needed anything else that he knew where to find him. His wrist watch read four o’clock but his inner clock felt as if it was seven o’clock. He had a few boxes of MRE stashed in condo, they all did, and he decided he’d earned himself a military style dinner. Tonight’s menu was spinach tortellini in a pasta sauce he suspected was just regular ketchup, one cinnamon-brown sugar toaster pastry that could be eaten untoasted and a powder that would make fruit punch once he poured into a water bottle. He walked back into his condo and began preparing his meal. It took all of five minutes before he hat a cardboard box full of hot food, a dessert and a somewhat cool drink to wash it down with.  
  
The MREs never lasted long for him. He had to tortellini devoured in a few minutes, the toaster pastry was set aside for a midnight snack and the fruit punch was drained to about half. Aaron’s daily routine was now only half over. He set his 1911 pistol on the table next to his SIG 9mm and then got up and grabbed his M4 carbine from it’s place against the wall and began the process of stripping it down and cleaning it.  
  
The weapon didn’t need cleaning, none of them did. He hadn’t fired a single bullet since he had returned to the camp a bloodied mess. Any dirt, grime or grit had been cleaned from the weapons in the first few days of his recovery. Now he just did it as something to keep him from going insane alone in the quiet darkness of his condo. He removed the magazine from the rifle and set it on the table next to his pistols and checked the upper receiver for any ammunition though he knew it wasn’t there. He saw no reason to differ from his usual routine. It wasn’t long after this that he had removed the bolt carrier assembly and the charging handle. He inspected the two pieces for any damage, even though he knew there wasn’t any once again, and cleaned them with a rag. After that he cleaned out the already pristine upper and lower receivers of the weapon before lightly lubricating the various parts and reassembling the gun.  
  
Next it was much the same for the SIG 9mm pistol. He released the mag and worked the slide to check for a round in the chamber. After that he removed the slide and internals and wiped them all down before reassembling them. The 1911 was next. He grabbed the pistol off of the table and admired the deadly piece of art he held in his hand. He loved the contrast between the black paint job and the ivory grips on the handle. He knew this wasn’t his gun but he had had one very similar to it and he had a lot of sentimental value invested in it. Whoever it had belonged had known how to properly care for the weapon. He hadn’t stripped the weapon down once yet in the two weeks he had been stuck in camp. For some reason he couldn’t bring himself to do it.  
  
He just sat there on the couch turning the gun over in his hands for a few minutes dwelling on poisonous memories from the past. He didn’t hear the first knock on his door, it had been gentle to the point of being near inaudible. The second knock was a little more forceful and pulled him out of his trancelike state. He set the pistol back down on the table and headed to the door. He wasn’t very happy to see Rebecca standing on the other side when he opened it. His mind was already racing with bad memories of a woman who was long dead, he didn’t need to have the woman who almost embodied her to throw him deeper into his personal hell.  
  
“Sorry but I can’t kill anymore madmen until Tori says I can.”  
  
She laughed. It discouraged him more because his statement wasn’t an attempt at humor.  
  
“No I’m not here to ask you to do anything like that.” She said “Can I come in?”  
  
His body stepped aside before his brain could tell his arms to shut the door and she walked inside. He involuntarily eyed her over as she walked past. The denim jeans she had been wearing when he had found her had been cut into enticingly short jean shorts that showed off her well toned legs, the black tank top she was wearing clung to her body the way clothing did in extremely hot and humid weather. The effect seemed to amplify every curve on her body. Aaron shook his head. Today wasn’t turning out to be his day.  
  
“Well if you didn’t come here to have me shoot somebody what can I help you with.” he said tiredly as he shut the door.  
  
“I haven’t really said thank you for everything you’ve done for me and the others over the last couple weeks.”  
  
“All I’ve done is sit on my ass for the last couple weeks.” He sat back down on the couch and grabbed the 1911 and began field stripping it. He didn’t want to have to focus too hard on Rebecca.  
  
“You’ve spent a lot of time with Kayli.” Rebecca said sitting down next to him. “I know how  
much of a handful she is and that she had to wear your patience thin.”  
  
He grunted in true amusement “Try non existent.”  
  
“She talks about you a lot. She thinks you’re a superhero.”  
  
Aaron glance over at her. “I’m not sure that’s the right word for what I am.”  
  
“You saved me from the walkers, you went and rescued four people from a crazed lunatic and you brought them back here where they are safe and well cared for. If you aren’t a superhero I don’t know what you are.”  
  
“Well, maybe that’s for the best.” He put the disassembled gun down on the table and began cleaning the slide.  
  
Rebecca looked down at the table full of weapons and carefully reached out for the SIG 9mm. She held it as if it were an extremely fragile jewel.  
  
“Do you know how to shoot?” he asked watching her carefully out of the corner of his eye.  
  
She shook her head. “No, but I’m a fast learner. Think you can teach me?”  
  
“Mendoza is the certified instructor and the best shot out of any of us. You should ask him to teach you.”  
  
“I’m asking you.” she said as she moved closer to him on the couch.  
  
“Sorry but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  
  
She slowly put the gun back on the table and folded her hands in her lap “You don’t like me very much do you?”  
  
He didn’t answer her and just kept cleaning the gun in his hands. She took his silence for affirmation.  
  
“Can I ask why you don’t like me?” she asked.  
  
“I never said I didn’t like you.” Aaron snapped “I just have a lot on my mind and I cant afford any more distractions than I already have.”  
  
“How am I a distraction?” she asked.  
  
“You resemble someone I used to know and a lot of things I spent the last few years trying to forget have started coming back up.” His voice became heavy. “It’s just best I keep my distance from you.” Rebecca’s eyes wandered over him as if they were searching for something and he didn’t like that very much “What?”  
  
“Billy told me you had a tattoo that I should see.” She said “Is it a picture of that person you used to know?”  
  
“Damn it Billy.” Aaron grunted under his breath.  
  
“He told me there is a story behind it.” Rebecca drew closer to him “I’d like to hear it.”  
  
Aaron shook his head “It’s a long story.”  
  
Rebecca laughed “I don’t exactly have anywhere to go.”  
  
Aaron looked at her for a long while. Eventually her large brown eyes destroyed any and all resistance he had put up. He sighed deeply and looked down at the gun and began to reassemble it.  
  
“I’ve known Billy since we were kids in elementary school. Our parents were good friends and the two of us grew up together. Once we reached middle school we began to drift apart and join different crowds. He became an omnipotent jock and I became part of the antisocial crowd.”  
  
“You? Antisocial? Oh I don’t believe that for a second.” Rebecca laughed. Aaron stared at her with an agitated expression on his face. “Sorry, continue.”  
  
Aaron shook his head again “When we were sixteen and in high school we had totally gone our separate ways, he was on track to getting a football scholarship in college and I was on my way to getting a long-term jail sentence for selling drugs. It was right about then that my parents died in a car accident, I didn’t have any grandparents or aunts or uncles so I wound in in the foster care system. Every place I ended up seemed to be the one place where all the bad rumors you hear about became reality. I ran away after I had been shuttled to my fourth home. Then I started using the drugs I had been selling and developed a pretty bad habit.”  
Aaron paused for a few minutes and Rebecca slowly reached out and put a hand on his arm and her expression softened.  
  
“You don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to.” She said trying to make her voice sound reassuring and comforting.  
  
“Might as well get it out.” He sighed “I was in the house that gave definition to the phrase ‘shit brick house’ high on meth and out of my mind. Billy showed up at that house to try and convince a friend to go to rehab and he, well he tripped over me more than found me. In my inebriated state he convinced me to come with him. The next day I woke up in a room I didn’t recognize and I could hear voices that weren’t familiar at least not until after I went down stairs. Billy and his parents were downstairs eating dinner. His parents told me to sit down and eat something and I did. After that I was spending a few nights here and there in their spare bedroom, Billy began hanging around me a lot more almost as if he was some kind of protector. On my seventeenth birthday I was basically living with him and his parents. And on my birthday his parents adopted me as their own.”  
  
“So you and Billy really are brothers?”  
  
Aaron nodded “Adopted brothers. He gave up his football scholarship because he said he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself and he wasn’t going anywhere I wasn’t until if discovered my hidden potential. We both went to community college together, it was his idea to become cops in the first place. He came to me and said ‘Hey Aaron we should become cops, we get to carry guns and get into car chases and yell at people for throwing shit where they aren’t supposed to. It’ll be the best job ever!’ and stuff like that. I agreed with him that it sounded cool so we went to the academy together, graduated together and patrolled the city of Albany together.”  
  
“Was it like everything he said?” Rebecca asked.  
  
“No.” Aaron laughed clearly caught up in better memories “It was mostly sitting and waiting and drinking coffee. Every once in awhile we’d get an interesting call like a burglary in progress or a high speed chase, but they were very rare. Mostly we dealt with people who yelled and screamed at us just because we were cops. After we’d been on the force for the prerequisite amount of years I got the opportunity to become a SWAT cop. I managed to convince the recruiters to pick Billy for SWAT school also. I managed to ace every task put in front of me, Billy faired well during his tests but the instructors didn’t like his attitude. They passed me and flunked him, but luckily enough for Billy the instructors were so hopped up on my abilities that I was able to charm them into passing Billy.”  
  
“How did you do that?”  
  
“I told them that if they didn’t pass Billy that I would just go back to being a patrol cop. The next day Billy told me he had been accepted and when we both received our team assignments we were both placed on James’ team. Billy was more excited than I was because I had managed to arrange that also. For the next four years I lived with Billy in this small ass apartment near Empire Plaza and almost every night I had to listen to him go to town on some random woman he had seemingly picked up on the street no less than thirty minutes earlier.”  
  
“I understand how that must have been uncomfortable, I’m kind of going through the same thing now.” Rebecca laughed.  
  
“Yeah I thought as much.” Aaron laughed back “Well Billy began feeling bad that he was getting all the women and he began talking his girls into getting one of their friends to give me a good time. More times than not I turned the offers down, but every so often I’d agree to it.”  
  
Rebecca began laughing “Just ‘every so often’?”  
  
“Yeah.” he said a bit defensively “One day he brought home these two girls. He and his date were drunk and the other girl completely sober. Without saying anything to me or her Billy and his date disappeared into his room. So here I was stuck in an awkward situation with a woman I didn’t know while our two friends were fucking in the next room. Loudly. She walked over to me and introduced herself as Elizabeth, she already knew my name because Billy had talked her into spending the night with me. She told me right away that she wasn’t there to fuck me and that she just owed her friend a favor. She sat down on the couch next to me and we ended up talking.” Aaron’s eyes took on a far away look as he began to stare into something that Rebecca would never be able to see “We ended up talking for hours and found that we were very similar: she enjoyed exercise and so did I. She liked shooting guns and anything firearm related just like I did, we liked the same kind of movies, music, hell we were compatible on almost every level.”  
  
“Wow. Must have been nice.” Rebecca said. Her gaze began drifting back on her past relationships searching for a connection like that.  
  
“Yeah. Things took off quickly not long after that. We were living in our own apartment not even a year later. Five months after that we were engaged four months later we were married.”  
  
He set the pistol on the table and swallowed hard. “Two months after that she died in a car accident.”  
  
“I’m sorry.” Rebecca said quietly she couldn’t find any other words to say to him.  
  
“The thing is the day she died she was arguing with me about how she didn’t want me to be on SWAT anymore because it was too dangerous. We argued for most of the morning about it and I couldn’t figure out why she was suddenly so against me being with SWAT. After they did the autopsy I found out though….she had been four weeks pregnant.”  
  
Rebecca felt the air leave her lungs. She was definitely lost for words now and she wanted to say something comforting. She felt horrible for making him relive and reopen old wounds that had probably never healed.  
  
Aaron blinked once and a tear rolled down his cheek. “I spent the next year feeling like I had been the cause of that accident. I thought that she had been so preoccupied by our argument that she had stopped paying attention to the road. Billy once again put his own life on hold for me, he moved in with me and kept an eye on me, helped get me through the funeral and stuff like that. That was six years ago. I’ve been by myself ever since, Billy didn’t try to set me up with anyone again. I buried myself in my work and got into boxing as a way to release everything that had built up inside me.”  
  
“And you got a tattoo of her?”  
  
Aaron stared at Rebecca for what seemed like an eternity. He began pulling off his shirt and that was the first time Rebecca had seen the damage done by Kaplan’s bullet. The bruise wrapped around most of his right side and was a sickly blue/yellow color. He followed her gaze to the bruise.  
  
“It looks worse than it actually is.” he put his shirt on the couch next to him and leaned forward  
  
“If you want to see my tattoo so bad, there it is.”  
  
He waited while Rebecca looked over his shoulder. He heard the expected shocked intake of breath as she took in the black and grey portrait on his shoulder. She slowly sat back on the couch and he leaned back.  
  
“That looks exactly like me.” she said in a quiet tone people adopted when they had trouble believing in something. “We could have been twins.”  
  
Aaron nodded “So you understand my reason for trying to keep my distance from you?”  
She nodded “It makes sense now.” her voice was still shaky. “I feel so bad for coming over here now.”  
  
“It was probably for the best, getting all of it off my chest will probably make things easier.”  
They sat on the couch for a few more minutes in silence. Rebecca suddenly felt sick with herself. She had come over here to try and make Aaron feel better and she had succeeded in doing the exact opposite. She slowly laid her head on his shoulder and when he didn’t resist she put her head on his chest. It shocked her slightly when he put his arm around her.  
  
“Do you think it was a coincidence that you found me?” she asked after a few moments of listening to his breathing. “Or was it fate?”  
  
He actually laughed “I don’t believe in coincidences or fate.” Aaron said.  
  
“It can’t be an accident that you found someone who looks like you wife.” Rebecca looked up at him “Things like that don’t happen.”  
  
“Well a lot stranger things have happened, like the dead walking the streets.”  
  
Rebecca couldn’t argue that point “Well it’s more romantic if you attach fate or destiny to it.”  
  
She felt his muscles stiffen around her “I’m not big on romance.”  
  
Rebecca smiled at him “I’m sure I can give you a few pointers.”  
  
They made eye contact and she lifted herself off of him and brought her face up to his and gave him tentative kiss to gauge on whether he would refuse her advance. When he didn’t pull away she put a little more feeling into her kiss pushing back into the couch so she was now leaning over him. He didn’t fight her as she dragged her lips down his cheek and began assaulting his neck with a combination of gentle bites and soft kisses. Rebecca began to rub her hand across his chest and down his torso and tracing her fingers around every defined muscle she came across. Slowly her hand landed in his lap and began groping at the expanding flesh hidden behind the fabric of his pants.  
  
Aaron still didn’t stop her so she pulled her face away from his and smiled at him as she worked her hand around the bulge in his pants. He didn’t smile back he just stared at her. Her heart was hammering in her chest, her last sexual experiences hadn’t been fun or particularly pleasure filled. Her expectations were high for what she was certain was to take place shortly. If neither of them didn’t deserve a good time then she wasn’t sure who did. She removed her hand and slowly swung her body over his so she was straddling him. She began to rock back and forth gently in his lap. Her breathing became heavy as she passed over the bulge in his pants over and over again coaxing slightly muted gasps from her compressed lips. Aaron grabbed hold of her hips and began pulling her down into his lap as she rocked her hips back and forth. She smiled down at him and she smiled wider when he smiled back at her.  
  
“You should do that more often.” she said as she started picking up some speed.  
  
“Smile?” he gasped.  
  
“Mmmhhmm. You know what else you should do? You should take me to your bed and fuck me.” She saw in his eyes that that was exactly what he wanted to do but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She had to find away to get him to commit. “If you want….you can call me Elizabeth.”  
  
As soon as she said it she knew she had crossed a very big red line that she shouldn’t have. She stopped rocking her hips as she watched any intention of physical intimacy leave his eyes rapidly. She climbed off of him and sat back on the couch a fair distance away from  
him. Aaron was on his feet in an instant.  
  
“I’m sorry.” Rebecca said without looking at him. She was embarrassed, angry and disgusted with herself all at once. “I’m so sorry.”  
  
“I don’t want to hear it.” Aaron replied. His tone was more disappointed than angry and it caught her off guard.  
  
He grabbed his shirt and started heading for his room. Rebecca looked at the door and felt a sudden urge of dread at returning to her condo.  
  
“Wait.” she uttered.  
  
Aaron actually stopped and turned around to look at her.  
  
“At the risk of further embarrassment, can I sleep hear on the couch. I don’t want to go back there and have to listen to Billy and Tori.”  
  
Aaron looked down at his feet and shook his head “You’re a piece of work.” he sighed deeply  
“You can have the couch or Billy’s room. I could care less which one you pick.”  
  
He disappeared into a room down the hall. She wandered down the hallway and found the only other bedroom in the condo. The bed was neatly made as if it hadn’t been slept in for days and the pillows were nice and fluffed. It was as if Billy had never even slept in the room. She was too tired and upset to pull the heavy wool blankets back and climb under them. She collapsed on top of the bed.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Aaron listened to the soft crying sound coming from down the hall. He was able to tune it out rather quickly and he was thankful for that. If he had to listen to that sound all night he would have gone in there out of sympathy for the woman and he really didn’t want to do that. He stared up at the ceiling of his room. It was so dark that he couldn’t make out where the walls met the ceiling. He stuck his hand under his pillow and grabbed the handle of the 1911 just for the comfort factor it provided. Despite the distressing cries echoing from the room down the hall sleep came rapidly to Aaron. Before shutting his eyes for the night he found himself hoping any dreams he might have wouldn’t be about Rebecca Ames.  
  
____________________  
  
  
He was jolted from his sleep.  
  
He hit the illuminator button on the side of his watch and the small screen lit up in neon green.  
_  
1:42 AM  
_  
Aaron looked around his dark room for the reason he had been jolted from his sleep. He hadn’t been woken by a bad dream of that he was certain, in fact he hadn’t been woken by a good dream either. He grabbed his pistol from under the pillow and gripped it tight in his hand. He reached out as much as he could with his senses. Aaron couldn’t smell anything amiss, couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the darkness of his room. He reached into the nightstand draw next to him and pulled out a scavenged tactical light attachment for his pistol and clamped it into place. Aaron shined the bright light around the room and confirmed that nothing was wrong.  
  
Then he heard it. A garbled moan coming from down the hall. It sounded like a distressed animal caught in a trap and quickly morphed into a terrified squeal.  
  
_Rebecca!  
_  
Aaron was on his feet in a second and dashed down the hall to the second bedroom. The door was shut and he didn’t bother checking to see if it was unlocked before he shouldered through it. He depressed the button on the light attachment and cast it around the room. Rebecca was sitting upright. Her hair was matted to her face and she had gotten herself tangled up in the two heavy wool blankets. Her face made him stop could. There was a whole new level of fear than he had ever seen written across it. Her eyes were wide and she was shaking. It was automatic, he was at her side in an instant unfolding her from the heavy blankets.  
  
“Rebecca what’s wrong?” She looked away from him and started to cry and her shaking worsened. He grabbed her chin and brought her face up to look at his. Her skin was alarmingly hot. The blankets combined with the humid air had caused her to overheat. “Fuck it.” he growled as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bathroom.  
He set her on the countertop and searched the room for a washrag. After he found one he had to run to the living room and grabbed a bottle of water before running back to the bathroom. Rebecca was still shaking and crying on the countertop. He dropped the rag in the sink and poured some of the water over it. He rang it out and began wiping her face with the cool cloth.  
  
“What happened?” he asked as he wiped the sweat and tears off her face.  
  
She sucked in a ragged breath as he draped the rag around her neck “Kaplan.” she stuttered before she fell into his chest and began sobbing deeply.  
  
He hesitated for a few seconds before he finally wrapped his large arms around her. Aaron didn’t know why he always had to be the one playing the white knight. After what Rebecca had done earlier he should have left it at a pat on the back and a reassurance that she was going to be fine. But he knew he wouldn’t do that. He already knew he was going to go the extra mile. He unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and pushed her away from him as gently as he could.  
  
“Here drink this.” he said putting the bottle in her hand. Her shaking hand threatened to spill the contents all over the floor. He took the bottle back from her and set it on the counter. “Hey look at me.” he said as he grabbed her face gently in his hands “Kaplan is dead he isn’t going to hurt you anymore. You’re safe here with me.”  
  
She collapsed against him again. Her shirt was soaked through with sweat and it clung to his skin when pulled away from her. He wiped the tears from under her eyes with his thumb and sighed heavily as he scooped her up in his arms again and carried her to his room. He set her on the edge of the bed and took off her sweat soaked tank top and dropped it on the floor. She looked at him with bloodshot eyes and gave him a curious look.  
  
“If you’re more comfortable in a sweat soaked shirt go ahead and put it back on.” he said as he walked around to his side of the bed and laid down. She crawled over towards him and laid down next to him. Aaron draped his arm around her and shut his eyes.  
  
“Hey,” Rebecca croaked “Can you tell me how Kaplan died?”  
  
“I had him handcuffed to a radiator and threw a walker in with him.” Aaron said without opening his eyes.  
  
Rebecca smiled “I thought you weren’t big on romance.”


	6. Chapter Six: Vipers

## Chapter Six: Vipers

 

Despite having shut his eyes almost four hours ago Aaron couldn’t get himself to fall asleep. Rebecca on the other hand hadn’t had the same problem. She was sleeping soundly wrapped up in his arms. He opened his eyes and stared at her for a few seconds and had a flashback to sleeping next to his wife. She was lying there breathing slowly the way people did when in deep sleep. Her toned frame was wrapped up in the much lighter blankets that Aaron had on his bed. Under those blankets Rebecca was curled up in his arms and Aaron wasn’t so sure that she belonged there.  
  
He wanted to be upset with her for what she had said to him the night before. She had no right to bring up his dead wife in that way and she knew it. Aaron felt he had every right to be angry yet he couldn’t bring himself to be angry with her. The animalistic fear he had seen in her eyes four hours earlier had erased all the hostility he had decided to harbor against her. It was clear to him that Fred Kaplan, even though he was dead, was still tormenting her. Instead of being directed at her, Aaron’s anger was concentrated on a man he couldn’t hurt anymore. There wasn’t anything for him to punch, threaten or kill all he could do for Rebecca is hold her and tell her that Kaplan wasn’t ever going to hurt her again.  
  
Aaron yawned as Rebecca squirmed in his arms. She pressed her face against his chest and groaned as she stretched out the rest of her body and opened her eyes. She looked up at him and they stared at each other for a few awkwardly silent moments before either of them said anything. Aaron checked his watch.  
  
“What are you doing up so early?” he yawned.  
  
Rebecca let her head collapse back to her pillow. “My internal alarm clock has been set to wake me up early that way I could get up and leave before whatever piece of abusive white trash I was laying next woke up.”  
  
“Life hasn’t been very kind to you has it?” he asked her only feeling more sorrow, or was it pity, for the woman.  
  
Rebecca shrugged. “No more kinder than it has been to you.”  
  
Aaron felt truly sorry for her after that comment.  
  
Rebecca stared at him again “Did you even sleep last night?”  
  
He shook his head and yawned again “No, but it wasn’t from lack of trying.” It was hard for him not to notice how she hadn’t let go of him yet and judging by the strength of her grip she wasn’t planning on letting go of him anytime soon. “You seemed to sleep better in here with me than you did when you were alone.”  
  
“I didn’t fake any of that last night.” Rebecca’s tone had become sharp and completely defensive.  
  
“I didn’t say you faked that last night. I know you didn’t.” He said trying to sound reassuring.  
  
“You cant fake the kind of fear I saw in your eyes.” He said. Her expression changed from defensively angry to sadly surprised. “I cant imagine what you had to suffer through with Kaplan, but if you hadn’t put your physical being on the line Kayli and Trina wouldn’t be alive right now.”  
  
Rebecca let her face fall against his chest again and sighed heavily as she squeezed him tighter. “Why is it that the good people have to suffer while the bad ones prosper?” She whispered.  
  
Aaron squeezed her in return “Because the bad ones are more suited to live in this new world.” Aaron said stroking the side of her face again “They don’t have morals that hold them back. They can rape, pillage and plunder without any hint of remorse as well as do it with a smile on their faces.”  
  
“Kaplan definitely fits in with that bunch.” she sighed heavily.  
  
Aaron studied her for a second and could easily see that she was staring at the wall across the room, lost in thought over something. He gave her a gentle nudge to pull her out from her daze.  
  
“It’s not just Kaplan that’s bothering you is it?”  
  
Rebecca looked at him with a nervous look on her face “No there is…..other stuff on my mind.”  
  
“Is it about what happened last night?” he asked.  
  
“Partly, yes but also something else that happened to me yesterday. I’ve been scared ever since it happened.” she said.  
  
“What?” Aaron’s voice became concerned.  
  
“Well…..Kayli asked me to be her new mom. I said yes.”  
  
Aaron was flooded with relief. He had thought something horrible had happened. It was clear to him that Rebecca was very much afraid of her newfound role as a mother.  
  
“That’s not such a bad thing.” he said.  
  
“I only said yes because I didn’t want to hurt her by saying no.” Rebecca said in a rushed manner. “I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a mother.”  
  
“Yes you are.” Aaron said instantly.  
  
The statement caught Rebecca off guard immediately. “How do you figure that?”  
  
“Just from watching you interacting with her. You bring out her full personality when she’s with you. You make her laugh and smile in a world where a child doesn’t have much to laugh and smile about anymore. You put your life on the line to save her and she told me you gave her and Trina most of your food when they were locked in the closet.” Aaron said “You really care about that girl and that’s how I know you’ll be a good mother.”  
  
The corner of her mouth curved up into a smile “Really?”  
  
Aaron nodded his head.  
  
Rebecca let out a surprised laugh “How come you’re being so nice to me after what  
happened last night?” she asked “I was sure you’d never speak to me again.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” his tone wasn’t so soft anymore “Just don’t do it again.” he managed to untangle his arms from hers and rolled onto his back. Rebecca draped herself over him so her head was lying in the center of his chest. Her hand began to trace around the defined muscles of his abdomen as she stared absently into space again. He yawned loudly enough that it brought Rebecca out of her trance once again.  
  
“When was the last time you really slept?” she asked.  
  
“The day before the world went to shit.” he replied as he tried to stifle another yawn.  
  
“Everything since has been light dozing and maybe an hour or two of decent sleep here and there.” Aaron looked up at the ceiling “How long have you been having those nightmares?”  
  
Rebecca sighed “Since I came here. Victoria found some muscle relaxers that helped me sleep through the night, but last night I forgot to take one.” she stopped tracing his abdominal muscles as she suddenly realized she was doing it. “I had other things on my mind.”  
  
Aaron laughed “Yeah I bet you did.”  
  
Rebecca laughed in return “In all seriousness, you should try to get a real good nights sleep. We’re in a safe camp where the walkers can’t get us, we have tons of food, weapons and ammo, as well as people who know how to use those weapons and ammo.”  
  
“That doesn’t mean we’re safe.” Aaron said “The Safe Zone had all of that multiplied by forty and it still fell to the biters in the end.”  
  
“Look I know you only trust two people, yourself and Billy, you need to show some trust and faith in the abilities of the others in the camp to keep it safe.”  
  
“I ran out of faith a long time ago.”  
  
Rebecca put her index and middle finger over his lips “Shhh. Be quiet, shut your eyes and relax and try to go to sleep.” she whispered.  
  
“Look I cant relax I have too much to do today-”  
  
“Like polish your guns for the thousandth time?” she sighed in frustration before rising up to her knees and looking down at him. “Do you trust me?”  
  
“What does that have to do¾”  
  
“Just answer my question,” she said as she tried to sound patient “Do you trust me, yes or no?”  
  
Aaron looked up at her and shrugged “Yeah.”  
  
Rebecca smiled and draped herself over him again and laid her head on his stomach “Good, hold still.”  
  
She reached her hand under the blanket and began undoing his belt. Aaron started to sit up and Rebecca turned her head to look at him.  
  
“Stay down.”  
  
“What are you doing?”  
  
“Just trust me.”  
  
Rebecca locked gazes with Aaron for what felt like an eternity before he collapsed back down onto the bed. Rebecca smiled again and turned her gaze back to the task at hand. She undid the clasp on the front of his fatigues and pushed them down below his knees, followed closely by his boxers. She smiled broadly after fully exposing him. She ran her tongue over the inside of her hand repeatedly before slowly wrapping her hand around him and slow started to gently tug on the hard flesh incased in her hand. Aaron began to breathe heavily as she stroked him. She placed her head on his heaving stomach and watched her hand work its magic on him. Rebecca gently kissed his abdomen muscles while her eyes were fixed firmly on the throbbing shaft in her hand. The speed of her stroking gradually increased.  
  
Aaron began groaning as she picked up speed. He shut his eyes and reclined his head into the soft pillow as waves of pleasure radiated throughout his body. He couldn’t deny the fact that he wanted her anymore. He had wanted her since the moment he had laid eyes on her. She had started moaning out of natural reflex while she kissed his stomach. He instantly wanted to be the cause of the moans, to be responsible for racking her body with surge after surge of pleasure. He gently ran his hand up her back and found the clasp on the back of her bra. He easily undid the clasp and helped her slide it off. Rebecca let go of him for a single second to remove her arm from her bra and tossed it to the floor with her shirt from earlier the previous night. She licked her hand again and was back on him in an instant.  
  
Her soft breasts pressed against the firm muscles of his stomach as she fixed her hungry gaze on the throbbing shaft in her firm grip. It was harder and larger than anything the last few abusive bastards she had had the misfortune of calling boyfriend had. She wanted it in her and was absolutely certain she wasn’t leaving the room until that happened. Rebecca looked over at Aaron and smiled.  
  
“Feeling relaxed yet?”  
  
Aaron smiled “A little.”  
  
Rebecca gave him an impish smirk “I’ll just have to take it up a notch.”  
  
Aaron gasped audibly as Rebecca lowered her face into his lap without any preamble. She began to bob her head up and down at a moderate pace, working her mouth in tandem with her hand. Aaron clutched the sheets in his large hands as gentle slurping and sucking sounds began to fill the bedroom.  
  
Aaron quickly made up his mind about what kind of relationship he wanted to have with Rebecca Ames.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Billy stretched his arms and climbed out of the bed and began pulling on his shirt and pants. Victoria mumbled something incoherent as his movements pulled her from her own deep sleep.  
  
“Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.” Billy whispered. He didn’t want to wake the two sick girls two rooms over either.  
  
“It’s fine I have to check on Trina and Kayli.” Victoria sighed as she began pulling on her clothes. “Where are you going?”  
  
Billy pulled on his black steel toed boots. “Taking the old man into town on a run. I found a few shopping centers that might have some clothing and canned goods we can use.” he opened the dresser drawer and grabbed his pistol “Should be a two man job.”  
  
“Ok, don’t forget the list of things we need that I made for you.” Victoria eyed him over “Why aren’t you wearing your armor? You said it was getting really bad out there.”  
  
“It’ll slow me down and overheat me in this weather. The tradeoff between protection and functionality are just too lopsided for my armor to be useful.” He loaded his 9mm Beretta and dropped it into his thigh holster.  
  
The sky had turned an inky blue/purple as the sun began to rise. Victoria pulled on her own shoes and headed down the hallway to where Rebecca’s room was. She stuck her head into the open doorway and noticed that the sheets on the bed weren’t disturbed at all.  
Rebecca hadn’t come home.  
  
The discovery brought a large smile to her face as she exited the room and moved onto check on the two girls. They were both still sleeping soundly in the same bed. She put her hand on each of their foreheads in turn checking their temperature. Both girls were a lot cooler than they had been the previous two days, their breathing was nice and steady and they had stopped coughing. The medicine Billy had brought back had done the trick. Maybe in a day or two both of the little girls would be back to pestering Dillon, John and Aaron. That though brought on a smile as well.  
  
Victoria had almost made it out of the doorway before Kayli called out to her. “Tori, Where’s my mom?”  
  
The question caught Victoria by surprise. Did she mean her real mother or Rebecca, whom had been acting as a motherly figure for the little girl the last few weeks.  
  
“What do you mean sweetie?” Victoria said as she turned around and walked back into the room.  
  
“Rebecca, she’s my mom, where is she?” Kayli’s voice had a panicked tone to it.  
Victoria walked around to the edge of the bed and crouched down so she was eye level with the little girl. “Sweetie Rebecca went to spend the night at Aaron’s. I told her I’d watch you.”  
  
“When is she coming back?”  
  
“Later today.” Victoria began stroking the top of the worried girl’s head “Go back to sleep, I’ll be back in a little while with something for you to eat if you’re hungry.”  
  
Kayli nodded and curled herself back up in her blanket. Victoria kissed her on her forehead before getting up to her feet and walking out of the room. She found Billy already by the front door grabbing his rifle and loading it.  
  
“Hey, Rebecca didn’t come back last night.” She said cheerfully “The girls are doing better to.”  
  
“Good.” He smiled “At least we have something to be happy about today.”  
  
“I’m worried about Kayli.”  
  
“Why? I thought you said she was getting better?”  
  
Victoria nodded “She is. I just think she is starting to believe that Rebecca is her real mother.”  
Billy laughed “They have spent more time together than anyone else in this camp. I’m not too shocked to hear her calling Rebecca mommy.”  
  
“This is serious.” Rebecca said flatly.  
  
“Well talk to Rebecca about it later.” Billy replied “I have to go Tori.”  
  
He gave her a kiss and disappeared out the front door in a matter of seconds. James was already outside waiting for him by the gate. Billy shook his head as he approached the aging SWAT veteran.  
  
“It cant be healthy for you to be up this early old timer.” He said as he walked up to the gate.  
  
James laughed “Since the dead started walking around I haven’t really given much thought for what is and isn’t healthy for me.”  
  
“Alright here is our shopping list for this trip.” Billy said pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket “Victoria wants us to get our hands on any antibiotics we can find in the nearby pharmacies. She also wants us to find more clothing for everyone, winter wear in particular.”  
  
“Winter clothing is going to be hard to come by.” James grunted as they motioned to John, who was sitting on the night watch perch Dillon had erected above the gate. “We could try to find a sporting goods store and find that insulating clothing.”  
  
John climbed down from the perch and walked over to the gate and began pulling it open. Billy and James climbed into the F350 pickup truck and started the engine. John gave them a quick wave as they drove through the gate and out into the empty city streets.  
  
“Yeah that might work,” Billy said “I know a store that has a lot of materials related to outdoorsy types. We might find some hoodies and jackets lying around there.”  
  
James nodded “You want to be honest with me and tell me how bad things are getting out there? Every time you go on a run you insist on going by yourself and you come back paler and paler each time.”  
  
Billy sighed “Like I told Victoria, Aaron and Rebecca last night, it is getting real bad. Biters are coming out if the interior of the city. Where there use to only be ten or twelve there are fifty or sixty.” he kept his gaze towards the windshield “I think their running out of food in the interior and are looking for more sources of food elsewhere.”  
  
James shook his head “Jesus.”  
  
“I don’t think so.”  
  
It took five minutes for them to get to the first destination on Billy’s mental list of places to stop.  
It was a Walgreens that was bordered by a shopping center that consisted of a massage parlor, Chinese restaurant, dollar store and a tobacco shop. Both men decided to search through the Walgreens first and slowly exited the pickup truck. Billy eased his door shut as quietly as he possibly good and gripped his rifle tighter out of anxiety. These supply runs were starting to wear away at his nerves.  
  
They approached the front doors of the Walgreens, someone had broken through the glass on the doors to get into the building after the power grid failed and the automatic doors failed to open. It didn’t bode well for their chances of finding something useful inside. The sun had yet to fully rise so there was very little light inside the store forcing the two of them to turn on the flashlight attachments on their rifles. Billy moved over the glass strewn threshold first and began scanning the empty aisles with his flashlight.  
  
“Do you smell anything?” he whispered to James.  
  
Anything that smelt foul usually served as an early warning sign that a biter was nearby.  
  
James shook his head.  
  
“Nothing yet.”  
  
“Lets hope it stays that way.”  
  
Billy scanned his way down the first aisle while James moved parallel with him searching the racks in front of the cash register. They reached the end of there respective aisles and had found nothing.  
  
“Fuck me, not even a single candy bar.” Billy said as he eyed over James’ aisle “Think they got everything?”  
  
“They didn’t, most looters go straight for TVs and electronic things of high value thinking they can sell it after the government sorts shit out. What we have to worry about are the smart looters who know exactly what they should be taking and wait for the masses of dumb shits to finish raiding the high priced stuff before coming in and cleaning out the canned goods.”  
James said “You know people like us.”  
  
“Was that what we were doing?” Billy asked “Waiting for the dumb shits to take all the flatscreens and stereos?”  
  
“No we were waiting for shit to calm down.”  
  
“But it’s only getting worse.” Billy sighed heavily “Come on Eltee, we’ve got a lot more aisles to check.”  
  
The next set of aisles an almost completely crushed container of cookies, a decimated box of Pop Tarts and a single bottle of water. Billy tossed the items into one of the many duffel bags that they kept in the truck for supply runs. So far neither of them could see or smell anything that caused them a great deal of concern. The continued to pick through the aisles only finding the crushed remains that someone else had obviously rejected sometime earlier. Once they got to the back of the store however, they found something worthwhile. There was a circular clothing rack still completely full of children’s clothing.  
  
“It aint winter gear but I’ll take it.” Billy said as he walked around the rack grabbing everything that seemed like it would fit Kayli and Trina and stuffing it into the duffel bag.  
  
“While you’re shopping for outfits I’m going to check the pharmacy, after that I guess we can call this place done and move on to that dollar store across the way.” James said.  
  
“Across the way?” Billy laughed “Careful old timer, your age is showing.”  
  
James laughed and walked towards the counter at the back of the store. The metal divider was pulled down over the counter preventing him from vaulting over it or even just looking over the edge to see if anything was back there. He looked around and found the door that allowed access to the other side of the counter. It was locked up tight with a heavy duty padlock. The fact that there was highly potent medication alone warranted the use of that kind of lock, but with the way things were now James didn’t dare open it just yet. He looked over to Billy and motioned him over. With as much humility as he could muster he looked at the much younger man “My hearing isn’t what it used to be, can you hear any biters on the other side of this door?”  
  
Billy grinned massively and gave James a gentle, sarcastic pat on the cheek “Step aside gramps.” Billy pressed his ear to the door and listened for even the most subtle of sounds. Thirty seconds ticked by, then forty, fifty, a minute. “Nothing.”  
  
“You sure?”  
  
“Yeah I’m sure.” Billy said “Do we have anything to break that lock?”  
  
James pointed at Billy’s arms “Those muscle aren’t just for attracting mates are they?”  
  
“You’re playing the old age card quite a bit today.” Billy said as he moved in front of the lock and brought the butt of his rifle down on it three times before breaking it. “You get to go first this time.”  
  
James brought his rifle up and Billy gently shoved the door open and followed his team leader in. There was no light, there was no stench, there were no threats. There were just meds. The racks behind the counter were completely stocked with bottle on top of bottle of different medications. Both men stared in awe at the gold mine of medication they had just discovered.  
  
“What do we take?” Billy asked without looking at James.  
  
“We take it all.”  
  
James began piling medications into his duffel bag on one side of the pharmacy while Billy cleared out the opposite side.  
  
“We don’t even know what most of this shit is.” Billy exclaimed.  
  
“We’ll have your girlfriend sort through it when we get back. You might get a lot of special attention from her tonight.”  
  
“So it’ll be like every other night then.”  
  
James laughed. It took ten minutes and seven duffel bags to clear out the stockpile of meds  
from the pharmacy. Billy heaved the final bag over the side of the truck into the bed with the other bags and then stood back and admired the hall.  
  
“On to the dollar store?” he asked.  
  
“Yeah why not.”  
  
Both men walked across the parking lot in good spirits and made a quick run through the confines of the dollar store and come out with a few canned goods: mixed vegetables, sweet corn and a lone can of carrots. The tobacco shop was next, it much like the pharmacy, was nearly untouched. Billy loaded his last duffel bag up with carton on top of carton of Marlboro Red 100s. James helped himself to a box or two of premium cigars and an ornate Zippo.  
The Chinese restaurant and massage parlor yielded absolutely nothing of interest to them. Both men head back to the truck feeling that the day turned out rather productive.  
  
“You know it’s not even ten AM yet and we already have a complete load of stuff to bring back  
to camp.” Billy said as he climbed into the passenger side of the truck and shut his door.  
James smiled at him and shut his own door. He opened his mouth to say something but the sudden echo of assault rifle gunfire made him snap his head to the left.  
  
“Did you hear that?”  
  
“Yeah.” Billy said turning his gaze in that direction. The assault rifle fired again and this time two distinct pistol types joined in with it. James started the truck and accelerated towards the source of the gunfire.  
  
“That's heading deeper into the city!” Billy exclaimed “The deeper we go the more biters there are.”  
  
“If someone needs help I’m not going to turn a blind eye and head home. Can you live with that on your conscience?”  
  
“We’ve done a lot of shit we’ll have to live with, but we cant risk losing our haul, we need to get it back to camp.”  
  
“Billy grab your gun and get ready to shoot something.” James said. His tone made it clear that it wasn’t up for discussion. They began encountering stray biters less than four-hundred yards later but the further they went the biters multiplied. Billy began to shake his head. The gunfire became louder as James made a right turn. Billy scanned his head around and located a dense pack of biters to his right swarming around a tan, late-model sedan. A group of three people had climbed up on a dumpster adjacent to the car: two men and a woman.  
  
“On our four o’clock, on that dumpster.” Billy said rolling down his window. Years of service and training to the Albany Police Department kicked. He grabbed his rifle and leaned out the window and began firing on the pack of biters.  
  
Rotted brain matter and decayed flesh splattered everywhere as he opened fire on the crowd. The people on the dumpster flinched as the two SWAT team members joined the fray. James brought the truck to a halt and climbed out of the truck and began firing. Biters began to break off from the pack around the dumpster and headed towards Billy and James. Billy slid out of the window and let his rifle dangle on its sling while he pulled his pistol and put two 9mm bullets into the closest biter, what had once been a man wearing an oil stained mechanics shirt.  
  
He switched back to his rifle and opened up on the biters as they tried to encircle him and James. The group on the dumpster recovered from their moment of shock and began shooting again. Between the five of them the pack of living corpses was eliminated in short order. The parking lot fell quiet for a few seconds as Billy and James stared at the three people on the dumpster and the people on the dumpster stared at Billy and James.  
James began walking towards the dumpster while Billy kept an eye on the biters at their feet checking for any sleepers. The two men dropped down from the dumpster and turned to help their female companion down as well before heading out to meet the two SWAT officers.  
  
“Morning.” James said in a friendly tone. Billy kept his rifle up slightly just in case these new people weren’t very friendly.  
  
“Morning.” one of the other men said. As the came closer Billy was able to make them out a little better. The men were obviously related, they both had the same dark closed-shaven hair cuts, similar facial features and were around the same height. The one that was speaking was a little older, maybe late in his late thirties and a little rounder. The younger one had a dark goatee and mustache, he was the one cradling the assault rifle. The woman was a few inches shorter than the two men, and was definitely more physically fit. Her skin was a light brown color that suggested to Billy that she was Hispanic.  
  
He decided not to hold it against her.  
  
“Names Tyler Locke.” the oldest man said to James and extended his hand. James shook it  
  
“Glad you two showed up when you did.”  
  
“Yeah you are.” Billy said he nodded at the woman and other man behind Tyler. “They are?”  
  
  
“Oh yeah, this is my little brother Wyatt he’s the best shot I know. You might recognize the  
woman on my right from TV. She’s Samantha Ramirez, 8-0 record in the UFC.”  
  
“Sorry not much of a fight fan.” James said.  
  
“She’s got a mean right hook.” Billy said “I saw her fight in Vegas.”  
  
“How much money did you win off my victory?” Samantha asked.  
  
“I actually placed my bet on your opponent winning. So I guess you owe me some money.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah enough with the chit chat.” Wyatt said “Who are you guys.”  
  
“Sorry, I’m Lieutenant James Walden and my friend here is Billy Blaze. We’re Albany SWAT.”  
  
“Great I just love cops.” Wyatt said darkly.  
  
“Show some appreciation Wyatt.” Tyler said “These cops just saved our asses.”  
  
“You guys got a camp?” Billy asked.  
  
“No we move from place to place, us and two others.”  
  
“Where are they at?”  
  
Samantha pointed to a store up the street. The sign outside indicated that it was a military surplus store. Billy nodded in approval.  
  
“What about you two?” She asked.  
  
Billy traded glances with James and shrugged “You’re the boss Eltee.”  
  
James nodded “We’ve got a camp, not much room for a lot of new people, but I think we can squeeze the five of you in.”  
  
“Is it secure?” Wyatt asked.  
  
“We wouldn’t have stayed there for going on three weeks if it wasn’t.”  
  
“We’ll have to ask Wade.” Samantha said.  
  
“Man, fuck Wade.” Wyatt said “He’s just fucked our group up worse and worse with every decision he makes.”  
  
Billy and James didn’t have time to ask about Wade. Mindless groaning began to echo off the walls of the buildings around them. The stench hit next and then they were almost surrounded by the largest pack of biters any of them had ever seen.  
  
“Fuck I told you the deeper we went the more of them there would be.” Billy said as he began to open fire. The horde began to slip between the five survivors and the truck filled with supplies. “We need to get to the truck now!” Billy yelled.  
  
“No leave it, we’ll have to sneak around and get it.” James said grabbing Billy by his forearm and pulling him towards the military surplus store. A small Hispanic man appeared in the doorway waving the five of them on.  
  
“Hurry your asses up.” he yelled as Wyatt, Billy, James, Sam and Tyler came crashing through the doorway.  
  
A pale hand wrapped its fingers around Billy’s ankle and began pulling him towards a maw of rotted out, blood thirsty teeth and claws.  
  
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Billy yelled.  
  
Wyatt put a quick burst from his rifle into the biter and grabbed Billy by his collar and hauled him in. The small Hispanic man managed to get the door shut and locked. He took several involuntary steps backwards as he took in the view of at least ninety undead corpses pressing against the thin glass of the door.  
  
“Any of you gringos got another way out here?” he asked.  
  
Samantha was panting and pointed at the man. “James, Billy this is my father Greg.”  
  
Billy had yet to climb to his feet and gave a halfhearted wave as he collected himself. James looked around the room but didn’t see a secondary exit.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Her breathing had become erratic, pierced by gentle gasps and sharp moans accompanied by the gentle creaking of the bed springs as he drove into her. Aaron kept his face pressed firmly against hers and enjoyed the complicated dance their tongues performed together. He slipped his hand under her so he was caressing the back of her head. His fingers intertwined with her hair as he pressed her face even closer to his. The kissing became more passionate and sloppy. He felt a trail of saliva roll down his chin and neck and resisted the urge to wipe it.  
  
He could feel her mouth twist into a smile as her nails dug into his chest as she pushed upwards. He removed his face from hers but promptly planted his lips against the side of her neck. The rough stubble on his face rubbed harshly against her soft skin eliciting a seductive whimper. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips into his ear and uttered warm whispers of praise. The rotations of her hips became more frequent and her lips took on a slight tremble. He was certain she was nearing the end and he increased the rate of his thrusting to match her hip rotations. Almost immediately her arms and legs wrapped around him and contracted with strength that belied her size.  
  
He pulled his face out of her neck and looked down at her. Her hair was matted to her neck with sweat. Her lips were slightly parted and were trembling visibly and her large brown eyes locked onto his. Her legs were gripping his hips tightly and her hands were clenched firmly around his. It was going to be a race to see who would finish first. The creaking of the bedsprings became louder as their bodies impacted more frequently on the race to release. Rebecca’s brow furrowed and her entire lower body lifted off the bed as she arched her back as she finally reached her climax with a series of loud staggered moans.  
  
She collapsed down onto the bed and remained still while Aaron slowed down to long, gentle thrusts. She ran her fingers through his hair and the corner of her mouth twisted upwards into a satisfied smirk. Her eyes took on a dreamy, glassy quality that made him feel a very manly sense of pride in his efforts. The tingling feeling worked its way up his legs rapidly after that. On his next thrust he reached his breaking point and released deep inside her.  
  
Just like he had always done with Elizabeth.  
  
Then he remembered that she wasn’t Elizabeth and that he wasn’t trying to impregnate her. The dreamy and glassy look that had dominated her eyes changed very rapidly to something akin to surprise and shock. He stared down at her for a few silently awkward moments before rolling off of her and onto his back. She rolled over onto her side and nestled herself against him and pulled the blanket up to her shoulders. She didn’t appear worried about what had just happened at all.  
  
“Feeling relaxed now.?”  
  
“Yeah I guess.” his voice must have had a worried tone to it.  
  
“Don’t worry about it. We’re fine.” she said closing her eyes. Her voice took on an uneasy tone. “I’m not fertile. One of the side effects of being in almost exclusively abusive  
relationships for most of my life.”  
  
“Well you wont every have to worry about being in one of those ever again.” Aaron sighed feeling a little relieved and gave her a kiss on her forehead.  
  
She looked up and smiled at him before resting her head against his chest again. Aaron wrapped his arm around her and decided he would have to thank Billy when he got back.  
  
He shut his eyes and finally drifted off to sleep just as his watch began to beep to signify it was ten o’clock in the morning.


	7. Chapter Seven: Sacrifices

## Chapter Seven: Sacrifices

 

Rebecca woke first.  
  
The sun was high up in the blue morning sky and humidity had settled over the camp like a damp blanket. She was lying on her side spooning with the slumbering mass of muscle that was Aaron Reese. He was breathing deeply, clearly lost in the depths of the best sleep he had had in a long while. His watch was in clear view on his left wrist and she carefully oriented it in her direction. The APD issued watch read: 2:35 PM. Four hours of sleep was better than no hours of sleep in her book. She gently pried his tree trunk of an arm off her body and tried not to wake him as she climbed off the bed and began to dress herself.  
  
Her underwear seemed to have disappeared during the events taking place in the room earlier in the morning and she quickly gave up looking for them and just pulled on her homemade denim jean-sorts. Her shirt was in horrible condition. It was sweat stained and the smell was as bad as any walker she had ever encountered. She kicked it under the bed refusing to wear it ever again. She leaned over Aaron and found a duffel bag on the floor. It contained most of his body armor but she could make out a few t-shirts near the bottom.  
  
She reached her hand into the bag and pulled out a faded black t-shirt with gray lettering across the front that read: S.W.A.T. It would be massive on her but it was better than anything she had to wear. She pulled the shirt over her head easily fitting it through the gaping hole that normally fit snuggly around Aaron’s neck. Once she looked up from inspecting her shirt, she jumped slightly. Aaron was sitting up in the bed staring at her. She hadn’t even felt him move.  
  
“Fuck Aaron!” she said hitting him on the arm “You scared me!”  
  
He laughed “Sorry. So I take it that after only spending one night together you automatically get to wear my clothes?” he said pointing at the shirt she was wearing.  
  
“Yeah, pretty much.” She smirked and straddled him “That was something earlier wasn’t it?”  
  
Aaron wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her “Yeah it sure was.”  
  
“I’m twenty-seven years old Aaron and in the last eleven years of my life I have never been with a man who could go that long and leave me feeling that satisfied.” she said as she rested her forehead on his.  
  
“Well those other guys didn’t know what they were doing.” he laughed.  
  
She let out a schoolgirl like giggle “I guess not.” her face took on a serious expression  
  
“Thank you though I really needed that more than you know. You’re the first man in a long  
time who hasn’t tried to hurt me. You saved me, patched up my foot, fed me, rescued my friends, gave me a fucking of a lifetime and took the time to make sure I finished first.” She stared directly into his eyes as she spoke “You’ve really taken care of me.”  
  
“Just being courteous.” he said with a half smile “And I do know how bad you needed it. I needed it just as bad as you did.”  
  
She smiled down at him and he smiled back. Rebecca knew that if she stared at him any longer that she would end up naked again and they’d be going at it again in seconds. She looked away from him.  
  
“As much as I would love to stay here and roll around in the sheets, I am a new single mother and should probably go check on my little girl.”  
  
Aaron nodded his head “Yeah you probably should.”  
  
Rebecca climbed off him and slowly walked out the bedroom to the opposite one where she had originally fallen asleep. She grabbed her tennis shoes, pulled them over her feet, and stood up. Aaron was standing in the doorway wearing his tactical pants and boots but no shirt.  
  
“I was thinking that since Billy practically lives with you and Tori that maybe you would like to move in here?”  
  
Rebecca stared at him for a few seconds blinking her eyes. “Really, you want me to move in with you?”  
  
Aaron nodded “Yeah, why not?”  
  
“Okay.” Rebecca stammered “Kayli will have to come to.”  
  
“I know. She can have Billy’s room and you and I can have the other one.  
  
“Kayli doesn’t like sleeping by herself.” Rebecca said.  
  
Aaron sighed “She can sleep in between us then, but just for a little while.” a devious smirk crossed his face.  
  
Rebecca smiled and walked over to him and gave him as strong a hug as she could manage.  
  
“Later today then if Tori says Kayli is good to go.”  
  
He gave her a hug in return and watched her go as she released him and walked out the front door.  
  
“Figures it would take the end of the world for me to find the right woman.” he said to no one in particular.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Rebecca made it outside and tried not to notice all the looks she was receiving from the group members. Dillon and Mendoza were standing near the gate working on some kind of metal bar and began trading hushed remarks and sly smirks as they noticed her emerge from Aaron’s condo wearing some of his clothing. She felt her face get warm and couldn’t stop from smiling a little bit as she tried not to appear like she was rushing to Victoria’s condo. Rebecca already knew she was going to razzed by her friend and that she had no reason to deny anything.  
  
She made it to Victoria’s with only the snickering and knowing looks from Mendoza and Dillon. She didn’t knock and just opened the door and walked in. Victoria was sitting on the couch reading a book she must of found somewhere in the condo. She looked up at Rebecca and smiled like a Cheshire cat before going back to her book.  
  
“You know its odd that you and the character in this harlequin I found seemed to have had the same kind of night.”  
  
Rebecca laughed “Oh I doubt that seriously.”  
  
Victoria raised an eyebrow and put her book down and folded her legs under herself and patted the opposite couch cushion “Well I want hear all about your night. I bet it was amazing.”  
  
Rebecca sat on the couch and nodded “Yeah it ended amazingly but could have started off better. I found out the story behind his tattoo and a lot about his life. It was all so sad.”  
Victoria face took on a curious expression “How so?” Rebecca told her about Aaron’s past and the tragedies he had suffered through. “Well fuck, no wonder he’s so tough.” Victoria said after taking it all in for a few moments.  
  
“Yeah I felt horrible for making him relive it, but a few seconds after that we were kissing and rubbing against each other and I could see he wanted me but couldn’t bring himself to commit. In the heat of the moment I told him he could call me by his dead wife’s name.”  
  
“You didn’t!” Victoria exclaimed.  
  
“I did.” Rebecca nodded “I knew I had just fucked up royally and he got up and walked to his room. He told me I could spend the night on the couch or in Billy’s room so I wouldn’t have to go through the walk of shame when I got back here. So I settled into Billy’s room and fell asleep like feeling like the biggest piece of shit in the world. A few hours later I had one of those night terrors about Kaplan and Aaron came busting through the door. I had gotten myself wrapped up in these real heavy wool blankets and overheated and Aaron picked me up and carried me to the bathroom where he soaked a rag with some bottled water and began rubbing my face with it. He asked me what was wrong and I told him and he told me I was going to be alright and that I was safe with him.”  
  
“Sounds like he was right about that.” Victoria said hanging on her friend’s every word.  
  
“Yeah, he carried me to his room and put me on his bed and held me the rest of the night. I fell asleep feeling as safe as I can ever remember feeling.” Rebecca sighed.  
  
“He let you sleep in his bed after what you said to him earlier?”  
  
“Yeah Tori I was just as astounded as you are.” Rebecca nodded “I woke up around five o’clock in the morning. He had never fallen asleep. We talked for a while and I apologized for what I had said and he told me not to worry about it. We talked some more about his sleeping habits and I told him he just needed to relax a little. He told me he couldn’t relax I told him I could make him relaxed and I started giving him a handjob.”  
  
“No shit? He let you?”  
  
“Yeah.” Rebecca nodded “It turned into the longest blowjob I’ve ever performed, thirty minutes or something like that.”  
  
“Bullshit!”  
  
“I’m not joking, the stamina that man has is almost supernatural.” Rebecca laughed “Then he pleasured me like I’ve never been pleasured before. I don’t know how long I spent on my back squirming around while he went down on me. Then we were fucking and it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced. He went to town on me longer than any man I’ve ever been with. By the time everything was over with it was just after ten in the morning.”  
Victoria sat back on the couch and exhaled “You want to trade men for a day or two?”  
  
“Umm….no.” Rebecca laughed “He asked me to move in with him.”  
  
“Really?!” Victoria said feeling excited and happy for her friend.  
  
“Yes, me and Kayli.”  
  
“Kayli.” Victoria said her tone became serious.  
  
“Is she ok?” Rebecca said feeling suddenly worried.  
  
“Fine, both girls broke their fevers and have gotten over their coughs. Kayli has just been  
saying some things that have me a little concerned.”  
  
“Really?” Rebecca asked feeling a little relief flood into her.  
  
“She’s been asking for you, but has been calling you mom.”  
  
“Well she asked me to be her new mom and I told her yes.”  
  
“You did? Why would you do that?”  
  
Rebecca was caught by surprise “Because I wasn’t going to emotionally shatter a little girl who trusts me enough to want me to be her mother.”  
  
“Caring for the girl is one thing but volunteering to be her mother is something totally different.”  
  
“If Trina had asked you the same question what would you have done?” Rebecca asked angrily.  
  
“I would have told her that I’m not motherly material but that I’m still going to take care of her.”  
  
Rebecca let out a disgusted snort “I thought you were a lot smarter than that Tori. I told Kayli I would be her mom because it makes her feel safer compared to just having an adult around to keep her safe. The word Parent has the word safety attached to it. It’s wired into a child’s brain from the moment they are born to run to their parents when frightened. Kayli and Trina don’t have parents to run to anymore. I changed that for Kayli and if you really care about Trina then you should consider doing the same.”  
  
The two women stared at each other for a long while before Rebecca went upstairs to her room and found both little girls sleeping in her bed. Rebecca removed Aaron’s oversized t-shirt and pulled on one of her own. She was halfway through packing her knapsack with what little clothing she had when she heard one of the two girls stirring behind her. Rebecca looked over her shoulder and watched Kayli stretch out her arms and let out a prolonged yawn before looking around the room. When her eyes settled on Rebecca a large grin spread quickly across the young girl’s face.  
  
“Mom!” the tiny girl exclaimed as she rocketed from the bed and crashed into Rebecca’s outstretched arms. It was going to take her sometime to get used to being called mom.  
  
“Hey Kayli, I’ve got some good news for you.” Rebecca said.  
  
“What?” Kayli asked without releasing the surprisingly strong hug she had wrapped Rebecca in.  
  
“Me and you are going to move in with Aaron.”  
  
Kayli pulled her head back and smiled wider with even more excitement  
  
“Really? When?!”  
  
“Today if you want.” Rebecca said “We just have to pack up your things.”  
  
Kayli had even less than Rebecca did. Just a few shirts and pants and two busted up Barbie Dolls that weren’t long for this world. In fact all of the small girls possessions could be stuffed into a backpack significantly smaller than the one Rebecca was using. It wouldn’t take her that long to pack everything away and move it over to Aaron’s condo.  
Kayli nodded enthusiastically “Yeah I’d like that.”  
  
Rebecca smiled. It appeared that she wasn’t the only female in the camp who wanted Aaron’s affection. Aaron really didn’t know what he was in for when he’d asked her and Kayli to move in with him. Rebecca smiled wider.  
  
“Well come on get dressed and pack up your stuff and we can go spend the day with Aaron.  
  
“Ok.” Kayli didn’t have anything in the way of sleepwear. She was wearing a regular pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt with a cartoon-like cat emblazoned on the front. The little girl grabbed her own backpack and placed one of her dolls into it and gripped the other doll tightly in her hand as she pulled the straps over her shoulders. “I’m ready.”  
  
Rebecca laughed “You forgot your shoes.”  
  
“They have holes in the bottom.” Kayli said “I need new ones.”  
  
Rebecca’s brow furrowed. She walked over to the side of her bed and picked up Kayli’s shoes and inspected them. She stuck two of her fingers inside one shoe and both fingers instantly appeared through the bottom.  
  
“Hmmm, maybe Aaron can fix these somehow until we can find you a new pair.” she said feeling sorry for the small girl.  
  
“You think so?”  
  
“Aaron’s a smart guy I’m sure he’ll think up something.” Rebecca handed Kayli her shoes and the small girl put them on and didn’t look too happy about it. “Hey cheer up, I’ll give you my dessert from my MRE tonight if you give me a big smile.”  
  
Kayli gave Rebecca a clearly over exaggerated smile to ensure that she secured the extra dessert. Rebecca laughed again and ruffled the small girl’s hair. Trina began to snore loudly. It appeared that the other little girl hadn’t rebounded from her illness as fast as Kayli had. Rebecca sighed and walked over to the sleeping child and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead. Trina’s eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Rebecca, clearly still sleepy.  
  
“Hey how are you feeling?” Rebecca asked.  
  
“Better.” Trina croaked in her half-asleep state “Just tired.”  
  
Rebecca pulled the covers up over the small girl’s shoulders and patted her head gently  
  
“You go back to sleep then, Tori will be up in a little while to check on you.”  
  
Trina nodded and instantly fell asleep again.  
  
Rebecca hoped that Victoria did right by that little girl. Trina had immediately clung to Victoria the same way the that Kayli had to her. Rebecca shook her head a little before turning back to Kayli and grabbing her own lightly packed knapsack. “You ready now Kayli?”  
  
“Mmhmm.” Kayli said “I’m hungry though, think I could have something for lunch?”  
  
“I don’t know about that. You know we’re all given rations Kayli, but I’ll see what Aaron might be able to do. It’s good to have some pull with a man who has some authority.” Rebecca winked at the little girl who promptly grabbed her hand.  
  
The two of them headed back downstairs and through the small living room. Rebecca made a point not to look at Victoria as she passed.  
  
“Bye Tori.” Kayli said as she waved with her freehand.  
  
“Bye Kayli.” Victoria said with a small smile.  
  
Rebecca opened the door and finally looked at Victoria “You should check on Trina, she didn’t look too good.”  
  
“I will and I hope you know what you’re doing.” Victoria said. “For both your sakes.”  
  
Rebecca looked down at Kayli and smiled “Yeah. I do.”  
  
The two of them headed out the door and made for Aaron’s condo.  
  
____________________  
  
**Several hours earlier** “Ah fuck!” Billy yelled at James “I told you this would happen!”  
  
The biters had piled up against the doors of the military surplus store they had piled into a few minutes ago. The glass was beginning to bend and threatened to shatter as the pressure increased with every biter that added it’s weight to the growing mob outside.  
  
“Calm down.” James said coolly “We can get out of this, does this store have any other exits or rooftop access?”  
  
Tyler looked over to Wyatt. “You scouted this place little brother.”  
  
“No other exits that I could find but there is rooftop access.” Wyatt said.  
  
“Where is it?” Billy asked.  
  
Wyatt pointed to a small hallway behind Samantha “We should find Wade up there, not that  
I’m thrilled with that.” The five of them all headed down the hallway to the staircase that led to the roof. It was very narrow forcing them to move single file through the near, pitch-black hallway. The moaning and gurgling coming from the horde just outside the door as they reached the staircase.  
  
“What’s so wrong with him?” James asked.  
  
“He’s military, from some kind of special forces group or something. I think that he’s starting to crack.”  
  
“How so?”  
  
“He hasn’t been making very good leadership decisions.” Tyler said “Before last week there used to be at least twenty or thirty of us.”  
  
“Yeah, but the fucker decided to set up camp in an empty meat packing plant.” Wyatt said angrily “Turned out the plant wasn’t so empty after all. The people you see here are the survivors.”  
  
“Well shit.” Billy said “One more crazed war veteran to add to the group.”  
  
“You guys got one in your group?” Greg asked in lightly accented English.  
  
“Yeah but he isn’t crazy.” James said “Billy just loves antagonizing him.”  
  
Billy went up the staircase first. It wasn’t as dark as the hallway but still dark enough to warrant the use of a flashlight. He clicked his on and rounded the corner. A set of large hands clamped onto his shoulders and spun him around and pinned against the opposite wall. Billy brought his elbow up into his assailants face twice knocking him to the ground. Billy pulled his pistol and aimed it at the man on the ground.  
  
“Whoa, whoa!” James said rounding the corner and stepping slightly in front of Billy. He looked down at the man on the ground. He was large, roughly the same size as Aaron maybe even a little larger. He was clad in the same military-style clothing as Dillon, even down to the distinct unit patches on the shoulders of his jacket. “I take it that you’re Wade?”  
  
The man nodded his head and raised his hands. Billy hadn’t yet lowered his pistol “Yeah I’m Wade Harris.”  
  
James nodded to Billy and the pissed off SWAT officer lowered his gun. “The fuck I could have shot you.”  
  
“I would have preferred it that way.” Wyatt said appearing behind James, with Tyler, Samantha and Greg in tow behind him.  
  
“Fuck you Wyatt.” Wade said climbing to his feet and studied James. “You two the ones doing the shooting out there?”  
  
James nodded. “Yes. Are you a Ranger?”  
  
“I _was_ a Ranger, before the world went to shit.” Wade said dusting off his sleeves and grabbing his own gun from where it had fallen.  
  
“Stationed in the safe zone?” Billy asked.  
  
“Yeah. What the fuck is up with all the questions?  
  
“Do you know Staff Sergeant Dillon Mane?”  
  
“He was my CO.” Wade said taking a little more interest in the two cops “He alive?”  
  
“Yeah he’s back at our camp.” James said “If you’re anything like him we’d be glad to have you in our group.”  
  
“Heh figures the fuckin’ Sarge would survive this shit.” Wade grunted “Let me guess though you all came up here because all the shooting you did down there brought a bunch of those tweekers down on us.”  
  
“Tweekers?” Billy asked.  
  
“Yeah, we call ‘em tweekers because they’re all skin and bone.” Tyler said “What do guys call them?”  
  
“Biters or walkers.” James said “Depends on who you talk to in our group. But to answer  
Wade’s question: yes we brought down a lot of them on us and cant get out through the front.”  
  
“Well I saw a fire escape we could reach from the roof.” Wade said “We’ll have to make a seven or eight foot drop from the rooftop to get to it though.”  
  
Billy looked around “It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”  
  
Wade beckoned them to follow him as he headed back down the hallway. The narrow corridor was instantly illuminated as Wade crashed through door. The group spilled out onto the rooftop and those who had weapons automatically brought them up and began scanning for threats.  
  
“It’s secure.” Wade said in an almost offended tone.  
  
“Force of habit.” James said.  
  
Wade ignored him and led them over to the edge of the rooftop and pointed down at the fire escape.  
  
“There she is. Who’s jumping first.”  
  
Everyone looked at each other. Billy cleared his throat “Well I for one am all for ladies first.”  
  
“Gee I’m so glad to hear that.” Samantha said sarcastically as she peered over the edge.  
She tried to gauge the fall to the fire escape landing and determined that Wade had been correct that it was under ten feet “But I’ll go first.”  
  
“You sure Sam?” Greg asked. His voice was filled with the worry that should have been expected in a concerned father.  
  
“Yeah, unless you want to drop over the edge first?”  
  
Greg shook his head “I know better than to try and make you change your mind.”  
  
Samantha exhaled and climbed over the ledge. She looked down at the fire escape again and looked for the safest part to land. She picked out a section of iron grating that looked promising and mentally counted to three before stepping off the ledge and free falling for about ten feet. She landed in a crouch and absorbed the impact of the landing with her knees. The impact caused the metal fire escape to clatter and ring. Something she hadn’t planned on happening. She looked up at the others on the rooftop.  
  
“Ok who’s next?”  
  
Everyone looked at Greg.  
  
“Ah hell.” the older Hispanic man said as he climbed over the edge and repeated what his daughter had just done.  
  
“James we need to get to the truck somehow.” Billy said as he peered over the rooftop and down into the street where their black pick up was still sitting.  
  
Wade, Tyler, Wyatt and James all peered over the edge as well.  
  
“Why do you need the truck?” Wade asked.  
  
“It has a shit ton of supplies in it.”  
  
“It’s covered in a metric fuck ton of tweekers.” Wade said back.  
  
“Most of the supplies are meds that we’ll probably need down the line.” James said “Ok when we get down there Billy and I will make for the truck and meet you guys at the Texaco station four blocks up the road.”  
  
“No.” Wade said “If you guys don’t make it we wont be able to get to your camp. I’ll go with Billy and get the truck, you go with my people up to the U-Haul station. Tyler can take you  
there and we’ll meet up at the Texaco station.”  
  
James looked at Billy who nodded in return “Ok fine you and Billy get the truck. We’ll meet up at the Texaco in about ten minutes.” James said.  
  
They approached the ledge over the fire escape again. Tyler dropped over the edge first making a clean landing in the same area as Samantha and Greg, who were now down in the alley covering the fire escape. James went next followed by Billy. Wyatt was sitting on the edge of the rooftop preparing to drop down next.  
  
“Hey Wyatt?” Wade said.  
  
“What?”  
  
“You can burn in hell.”  
  
Wade gave him a hard shove in the back and Wyatt freefell down to the fire escape and banged off the edge of the metal railing. His head had smacked off of some of the piping on the fall and he was now hanging precariously over the edge of the fire escape unconscious. Billy was on him in an instant hauling him over the side and onto the solid floor of the grating and into safety. Wyatt had a good sized cut on his forehead and maybe some busted up ribs. There wasn’t any blood leaking out of his mouth which suggested that he hadn’t suffered any serious internal injuries. Wyatt slapped him a few times to try and wake him but the man was out cold.  
  
“Ah fuck it.” he grunted and picked the man up and threw him over his shoulder and descended down the fire escape quickly.  
  
“What happened?!” Tyler exclaimed as he rushed over to his brother as Billy reached the alley way.  
  
“He didn't calculate his landing right and hit the side of the fire escape.” Billy said as he watched  
  
Wade descend the fire escape rapidly.  
  
Billy tried to tell himself that he hadn’t seen what he had thought he had seen. From where he had been it had looked as if Wade had pushed Wyatt of the edge of the rooftop. He wasn’t sure if it was stress fucking with his eyesight or not so he decided not to say anything to the others just yet.  
  
“Is he alright?” Wade asked as he entered the alley. “When he jumped I knew he had put too much force into it.”  
  
“He’s just knocked out. We’ll get him to our medic in camp and he’ll be just fine.”  
  
“Oh, well that’s great.” Wade said. His tone did sound like a man who was relieved. In fact he sounded a little worried. Billy eyed him suspiciously. “Come on lets go get your truck, looks like we need those meds now.”  
  
James patted Billy on the shoulder “You stay sharp kid. If anything happens to you Aaron will skin me alive, then I’ll have to deal with Tori.”  
  
“Don’t worry about me Eltee. I’ll come back in one piece.”  
  
Billy and Wade started off in one direction down the alley while Tyler directed James and the others down the opposite way towards the U-Haul dealership. Billy peeked around the corner and counted no less than twenty hungry, corpses stumbling around the area near the truck.  
  
“Any ideas?”  
  
Wade looked up and down the street. “Yeah those sports cars down the street. They must have alarms on them.”  
  
“We shoot out the windows, the alarms go off and draw the biters from the truck.”  
  
“That’s the idea.” The two men swung their weapons out into the street and fired into the windshields of two new model sports cars. Instantly the loud wining of sirens filled the street. Only a few of the walkers near their truck moved off to investigate the source of the new sounds. “Well it kinda worked.”  
  
“We’ll just have to pick the rest off ourselves.” Billy sighed.  
  
Both men fell into the routine practice of putting down walkers. The muted tap-tap-tap of Billy’s suppressed M4 rifle could barely be heard over the sharp barking report of Wade’s M16 rifle. Bullets ripped through rotted flesh and black, fetid gore erupted through shattered cranial cavities as the soldier/cop duo made their advance towards the truck. Thirty seconds had elapsed and the two men had managed to clear out a sizeable area between the and the truck. It would take the nearest walker at least a few minutes to reach them, but they would be long gone by then. They walked to the bed of the truck and Billy inspected the contents. After a quick count he determined that all the duffel bags were accounted for.  
  
“Good everything’s here.”  
  
“Great can we get the fuck out of here then?”  
  
“Yeah but you have to answer a question for me first. Did you shove Wyatt off the roof?”  
  
Wade stared at him without blinking for several seconds “No.”  
  
His voice had been flat and calm but his eyes might as well have just said yes. Billy nodded his head “I’m going to keep my eye on you, and if you so much as cause a single problem I’ll throw you out to the biters myself.”  
  
He turned around and began walking to the drivers side door. He had his hand on the handle when Wade’s rifle slammed into the back of his head knocking him onto his stomach. Wade began kicking and beating him with his rifle where ever he could inflict pain on Billy. He gave a final hard kick to Billy’s face and Billy stopped moving. Wade grabbed him by his arm and dragged him away from the truck and out into the street in plain view for the walkers. Wade spit on Billy as a final farewell and climbed into the pick up truck, started it and drove off towards the Texaco station.  
  
____________________  
  
  
“Aaron!” Kayli exclaimed as she rushed into the living room and practically tackled him as he came into view.  
  
“Wow you must feel better.” Aaron laughed as he returned her hug “You certainly got your strength back.”  
  
Kayli hit him in his stomach “Why didn’t you come see me while I was sick?” she demanded her face becoming serious and her voice taking on a bit of an angry tone. For some reason her anger amused Aaron, the little girl was too cute to portray anger very well.  
  
“I didn’t want to get sick.” Aaron lied. He couldn’t tell the little girl he hadn’t visited her because he had needed a break from her.  
  
“Well next time you better come see me.”  
  
“Yes ma’am.” Aaron said taking her backpack off her shoulders. He was taken aback by how light it was. “You must be hungry.” he said.  
  
“Yeah.” Kayli nodded. Whatever anger she had held against him was instantly forgotten.  
  
Aaron pulled two MRE boxes off of the couch and handed them to the little girl. “I figured you would be, so pick one and I’ll get it set up for you.”  
  
Kayli inspected the two boxes and instantly pointed to the one in Aaron’s right hand “I want the ravioli!”  
  
Aaron laughed “You got it.”  
  
“What about me?” Rebecca asked “No hello, no hug, didn’t even offer me lunch. Am I going to have compete with Kayli for your attention now?” she grinned.  
  
“Here you can have the other one. Stroganoff.” he said tossing her the box Kayli hadn’t chosen “As for your hug I think that was already taken care of earlier.”  
  
“What if I want another ‘hug’?” she said stepping over to him.  
  
“You’ll have to wait.” Aaron grinned.  
  
A few minutes later Kayli and Rebecca were sitting on either side of Aaron on the couch eating their MREs and having casual conversation. Both of them wanted to know more about what it was like being a member of a SWAT team and Aaron regaled them with tales of some of the calls he’d been on during his time with APD SWAT. Kayli finished her lunch first, and true to her word Rebecca had given the small girl the dessert from her own MRE. Kayli finished that quickly as well and decided to take her shoes off. Rebecca patted Aaron on the arm.  
  
“I don’t suppose you know how to repair shoes do you?” she said pointing at the worn shoes that Kayli had placed on the floor.  
  
Aaron picked them up and inspected them. “You know I might have something to fix these up.”  
  
He got off the couch and disappeared down the hallway. Kayli scooted down the couch so she was sitting next to Rebecca.  
  
“He’s nice.” She said to Rebecca. Rebecca was in the middle of draining the last of the powdered fruit drink she’d mixed in her water bottle and nodded to the child. “Do you think he’d be my dad?”  
  
Rebecca choked on the fruit punch. She hadn’t expected that question at all. She began coughing and wiping tears that had sprung up as a result of her choking. She pulled herself together and looked at Kayli.  
  
“I don’t know Kayli, you’ll have to ask him.”  
  
Aaron reappeared with something in his hands and gave them to Kayli. Rebecca began laughing instantly. Aaron had simply wrapped Kayli’s shoes in duct tape. Kayli looked at them with a mixed expression of gratitude and disappointment.  
  
“Ummmm…..thanks.”  
  
Rebecca laughed harder as Kayli tried to hide her obvious dismay over the ‘repairs’ Aaron had made to the shoes. Even Aaron was grinning.  
  
“Don’t like them?” he asked.  
  
“Umm yes I like them a lot.”  
  
Rebecca couldn’t imagine ever laughing harder than she was at that moment.  
  
“Your not a very good liar Kayli.” Aaron smiled as he handed her a pair of white on pink Nikes that were almost the same size as the ones wrapped in silver duct tape.  
  
Rebecca stopped laughing and her eyes went just as wide as Kayli’s. She instantly dropped the old, duct taped up shoes and grabbed the new almost unused looking pair. She slipped them on without any trouble.  
  
“They fit!” she exclaimed.  
  
“Where did you find those?” Rebecca asked.  
  
“They were in one of the rooms in here when me and Billy cleared it out.” Aaron said. “Good thing I held onto them.”  
  
Rebecca reached up and pulled him over the couch and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Kayli wrapped her deceptively tiny arms around his neck and gave him a hug that was on the borderline of becoming a chokehold.  
  
“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou” Kayli said in a rapid string of words that was almost incomprehensible.  
  
“You’re welcome.” Aaron said. He sat down in between Rebecca and Kayli and they both nestled in against him. He looked outside the window by the door and noticed the sky had turned reddish/orange as the sun began to set. “Where did the day go?” he asked nobody in particular.  
  
“Who cares.” Rebecca said “As long as we have a tomorrow.”  
  
Suddenly there was honking outside the front gate but it didn’t sound like the horn from the pickup truck. He reluctantly pulled himself off the couch and grabbed his 1911.  
  
“Stay inside for right now.” he told Rebecca.  
  
He stepped outside just as a battered U-Haul van appeared in the courtyard followed closely by the black pick up. James and several people who Aaron didn’t know climbed out of the van and someone who was obviously military climbed out of the pickup.  
  
But there was no Billy.  
  
When James spotted Aaron, the look on the older man’s face was all that Aaron needed to know that something had gone horribly wrong.


	8. Chapter Eight: Guilt

## Chapter Eight: Guilt

 

“Where’s Billy?” It was all Aaron could say as he watched James walk over to him from the battered U-Haul.  
  
“Aaron, Billy is….he’s gone.” James uttered his voice was thick with strained with effort as he tried to keep his voice calm and even.  
  
“What do you mean gone?” Aaron asked even though he knew the answer. Rebecca and Kayli had wandered out of the condo and Victoria, Dillon, Connor and Mendoza appeared in a loose circle around Aaron and James.  
  
“You know what I mean.” James said looking down at his feet “It’s my fault. We heard gunshots coming from deeper inside the city and I decided to go investigate. He told me to forget about it but I couldn’t ignore someone else who was in trouble.” James pointed to the group of five people behind him “We found them outside a military surplus store and we got pinned inside by a group of biters. We got out by using the fire escape but Billy went to get the truck with Wade. They got swarmed and separated.” James couldn’t hold it together anymore and tears began falling down his cheeks “They got Billy.”  
  
Victoria began breathing heavily and then grabbed the top of her head “No! No this cant be happening!” she screamed. She began sobbing uncontrollably and fell to the ground. Aaron was close enough to her to catch her before she hit the concrete. He fell to his knees as her bodyweight pulled him down and she screamed into his chest.  
  
Rebecca slowly dropped down to her knees and wrapped her arms around the two of them. She was crying as well.  
  
“I’m so sorry.” she uttered to both Aaron and Victoria.  
  
It was all any of them could say.  
  
“For what it’s worth he saved our lives.” Tyler said stepping forward from the group of newcomers they were standing by watching everything unfold with a mixture of sympathy and discomfort.  
  
Aaron was too angry to be sad and he slowly shifted Victoria’s weight over to Rebecca and rose to his feet and slowly made his way to Tyler.  
  
“For what it’s worth?” he growled “Billy was worth ten of every single one of you.”  
  
Tyler looked away as Aaron’s rage filled gaze bore into him.  
  
“He was careless.” Wade spoke up from by the pickup truck “It’s how we got separated from each other.”  
  
“What did you say?!” Aaron barked wheeling on Wade.  
  
“I said your friend was careless and reckless.” Wade said taking a few steps towards Aaron.  
  
“Shut it Wade.” Dillon yelled from behind Aaron.  
  
“You know that asshole?” Aaron asked.  
  
“He was in my unit.” Dillon said “I didn’t feel like announcing that because this isn’t a time for  
celebration.”  
  
“Billy did get us all these supplies.” James said pointing to the bags in the pickup. “Mostly meds we snagged from a pharmacy but there are some other things we needed as well like clothing. At least the trip wasn’t all for nothing.”  
  
Aaron gave a wave that was just as much dismissive as it was angry. “John can you and Dillon get that shit unloaded and into my condo for now.” he said quietly. His head was starting to spin “Tori and Trina can stay with me and Rebecca tonight and we’ll sort through it tomorrow.”  
  
“Yeah, you got it.” Dillon said. He walked over to the pickup and grabbed two of the large duffel bags. Wade gave his former superior a disapproving look.  
  
“Working for your lessers now Sarge?”  
  
“Keep it up and I’ll show you who the lessers really are.” Dillon said.  
  
“I’m moving the Locke brothers in with you also.” James said “Wade will take up residence with me, Dillon and Connor and Samantha and Greg can move in with John.”  
Mendoza laughed ruefully “Trying to keep Billy’s spirit alive by lumping all us Hispanics under one roof?”  
  
“Maybe, maybe not.” James said. “But no fiesta’s after dark.”  
  
John gave his boss a pat on the shoulder “Give it up Eltee, it aint the same.”  
Aaron helped Rebecca pull Victoria off the ground. “Rebecca can you go get Trina, I’ll get  
Tori situated.”  
  
“Yeah.” She looked at Aaron for a few seconds as he picked Tori up “Are you ok?”  
  
“I’m fine.” Aaron said.  
  
Rebecca knew the conversation had just been ended and disappeared into the other condo to grab Trina.  
  
“So umm which one is yours?”  
  
Aaron looked behind him and found the first man he had yelled at standing a few feet behind him. He was holding a younger man who he was obviously related to that didn’t look like he was doing so well.  
  
“Was he bit?” Aaron said.  
  
“No this happened when we were on the fire escape.” Tyler said.  
  
Aaron nodded “Come one mine’s over here, we’ll get him looked at as soon as we can.”  
  
“James said you had a doctor.” Tyler said as he followed Aaron into the condo.  
  
“Yeah, I’m holding her.” Aaron said. He carried Victoria into his room and set her on the bed.  
  
“Tell me this is a bad dream.” She whispered to him as he pulled a blanket over her.  
  
“I wish it was Tori. I really do.” he wiped the tears from her cheeks “Everything will be ok.”  
  
“Don’t lie to me.” Victoria sobbed quietly.  
  
Rebecca came into the room not too long after that, with two little girls in tow behind her. She walked over to Aaron and wrapped him in a hug.  
  
“You and the girls can stay in here with Tori tonight. I’m gonna stay out there and keep an eye on those two in the living room.” Aaron told her as he returned her hug.  
  
“Don’t bottle it up.” Rebecca whispered in his ear “Don’t let your grief eat away at you.”  
Aaron kissed her “I cant afford to grieve right now, there is too much I have to do. But don’t worry I’m not going to let this bottle up.” he kissed her again and walked out of the room.  
  
Rebecca stared out the doorway feeling more than concerned for Aaron. He had just lost the one constant thing in his life and he was acting as if it was no big deal. Fear crept up her spine as she thought about how bad it was going to be when his guilt finally caught up with him.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Tyler had dropped his younger brother down onto the decently sized couch that dominated the small living room. Wyatt was still out cold. Samantha had managed to stop the bleeding from the cut on his head while they had been in the back of the U-Haul. He understood that the woman who was this new groups doctor had just lost someone close to her, but he couldn’t help but hope that she got over her loss quickly so she could treat Wyatt.  
  
He busied himself with helping the two other men bring in the supplies from the truck. They brought the bags to the front door and he dropped them into the bedroom at the far end of the hall. Tyler was on his way back to the front door to grab the next set of med filled duffel bags when he ran into Aaron. Tyler couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the larger man as they made eye contact.  
  
His eyes were unsettling, they weren’t filled with sadness or anger or the usual emotions that came with a sudden loss. They were just empty and cold as if he had somehow just shut himself down to prevent feeling the pain that came with the grieving process. That alone frightened Tyler. A man that could just shut his emotions off like that could be dangerous under the right circumstances.  
  
“You going to keep staring at me like that?” Aaron asked “Things might get a little awkward if you do.”  
  
“Oh, yeah sorry.” Tyler said “It’s just been one of those days.”  
  
“Yeah I know what you mean.”  
  
“I’m Tyler Locke. The guy on the couch is my little brother Wyatt.”  
  
“Aaron Reese.” Aaron said looking to the couch. You really couldn’t describe Wyatt as  
Tyler’s ‘little’ brother. He looked to be several inches taller and had a lean muscular build in line with that of a boxer, similar to Aaron’s build but just slightly slimmer. Yeah Aaron decided he would use _younger_ brother instead of _little_ brother to describe Wyatt Locke. “How long has he been out?”  
  
“Just over an hour.” Tyler said grabbing the last of the duffel bags delivered by Dillon and Mendoza and walking back to the bedroom again.  
  
It was getting dark outside now and Aaron activated one of the small battery operated lamps they had been using as light sources. It cast a ghastly orange glow over the living room but did little to help Aaron make out the wounds on Wyatt’s body. He kept a small flashlight on a shelf that had once housed a decently sized flatscreen and went over and retrieved the tool. He shined the much brighter light onto the unconscious man and began his inspection.  
  
The cut on his head wasn’t bleeding but was going to require some stitches and a nice bruise was beginning to form under his right eye. There wouldn’t be any way to discover if he had a concussion until after he woke up. Aaron noticed a tear in Wyatt’s t-shirt and shined the light on it. There wasn’t any blood but Aaron could tell that the skin wad discolored.  
  
It appeared that concussions and busted up ribcages were becoming the standard ailment of the group. Aaron hoped that that was as bad as it would get, but he knew it was a fools hope. Aaron was too busy dwelling on his hopes for his group’s future to notice that Wyatt was coming to.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Wyatt felt pain at it highest level as he slowly became aware of his senses again. His head was throbbing and he breathed in fire every time he inhaled. He could feel the soft cushions of a couch under him. His eyes fluttered open to find himself in a strange room with someone holding a flashlight standing directly over him. Wyatt’s reaction was primal and instant. He brought his knee up into the side of the unknown man standing over him, causing him to double over. The man’s head was close enough to Wyatt that it enabled him to trap the man in guillotine choke. Wyatt got his arms around the man’s neck and clamped his left hand around his right wrist and squeezed.  
  
The chokehold wasn’t applied that long. The man brought his fist down onto Wyatt’s injured side twice. Wyatt released the hold instantly as incredible pain raced through his ribs. He instantly found himself face down in the couch cushions with the man’s knee planted in the small of his back and his arms secured behind his back. The maneuver screamed cop.  
  
“Calm down.” Aaron panted as he recovered from the attempted chokehold “I’m not trying to hurt you, I‘m trying to patch you up.”  
  
“You got a weird fucking way of going about it then!” Wyatt growled into the cushion.  
Aaron had a firm grip of Wyatt’s hands and there wasn’t anything the wounded man could do to get out of it. “I’m going to let go of you in a few seconds. I expect you to sit here and stay calm.”  
  
“If I don’t?”  
  
“I’ll shoot you.”  
  
There was no hesitation in the reply and the man’s voice was as solid as ever. Wyatt had little doubt that the man would shoot him.  
  
“Where’s my brother?”  
  
“He’s putting supplies away in the other room.” Aaron said “If you’re cool I’ll see about getting you some pain meds to get you through until Tori can check you out.” Wyatt managed to nod his head. Aaron let go of him and stood up and made it very clear that his pistol was visible in his waistband. “My name is Aaron by the way.”  
  
“I’ll just call you Asshole for now.” Wyatt grunted as he was more or less pulled into a sitting position by Aaron. He found it odd that Aaron chuckled somewhat at the remark.  
  
Tyler appeared in the hallway a few seconds later. “It’s about damn time you woke up bro. I was starting to get worried.”  
  
“Whatever.” He looked over to Aaron “You said something about pain meds.”  
  
Aaron nodded his head “Yeah I’ll be right back with something.”  
  
He walked down the hallway and couldn’t help but hear the gentle sobbing coming from behind the door to his room. The noise was too high pitched to be Rebecca or Victoria. It had to be one of the girls. It was hard for him to pinpoint which one it was because they both had been close to Billy. A visual of Rebecca trying to wrap the two children and Victoria in her arms to try and comfort them slipped into his minds eye. He probably should have went in there but he knew if he did then his own grief would finally overcome him. He needed to keep it at bay for as long as he could.  
  
The group needed him more than ever now that Billy was gone.  
  
He walked into Billy’s room and fished around in the duffel bags that contained the over the counter medicines, not the top shelf stuff fro the pharmacy storeroom, that James and Billy had found in the pharmacy and found a small bottle of Aleve on his fourth bag. It wasn’t a five star pain killer but it would certainly take the edge off of Wyatt‘s pain for now. Aaron grabbed a bottle of water as well and headed back out to the living room and tossed each item in turn to Wyatt. The injured man quickly downed two of the pain meds followed by several long pulls of water. Aaron sat himself down in one of the two large leather chairs that were situated on either side of the couch. He eyed the Locke brothers over for a few seconds trying to form an opinion of them.  
  
Tyler seemed like a good enough guy, the type that was always jovial and looked on the bright side of things. Wyatt on the other hand seemed to be a more glass half empty guy and had the permanently fixed pissed-at-the-world look on his face. Aaron knew that look well, he had seen it in the mirror for quite a few years.  
  
“How’d it happen?” he asked pointing at Wyatt’s injuries.  
  
“We had to jump from a rooftop down onto a fire escape and my little brother here over calculated his jump.” Tyler said “If it hadn’t been for your friend Billy, Wyatt might not have made it.”  
  
“I didn’t over calculate anything because I didn’t calculate anything at all.” Wyatt said putting down the bottle of water. “Wade shoved me.”  
  
“Aw come on man!” Tyler said “He’s an asshole but he wouldn’t do anything like that.”  
  
“I swear on my life that piece of shit shoved me off that rooftop.” Wyatt said. From the tone of voice he was using, Aaron easily felt that Wyatt believed what he was saying. “I’m not making this shit up Ty.”  
  
“Ok, I think you just need to rest little bro.”  
  
“Fuck that. I need to find Wade and cave his head in.”  
  
“Maybe once your ribs are healed up.” Aaron said tiredly “You aren’t in any kind of shape to take on an Army Ranger.”  
  
Wyatt suddenly took on a tired look of his own “Yeah, build up my muscles a little more and I’ll really pound the shit out of that fucker.” He looked around. “Where’s that cop that saved me?”  
  
“Billy didn’t make it.” Aaron said.  
  
“Oh, sorry.”  
  
“He wasn’t the first friend I’ve lost in all this, and he probably wont be the last.” Aaron sighed.  
  
“How’d it happen?”  
  
“He was with Wade recovering the truck with the supplies. The two of them got separated and Wade was the only one at the regrouping point.” Tyler said. “Wade said that Billy had been swarmed.”  
  
Wyatt stared at Tyler for a few long seconds. “Billy was on the landing when Wade pushed me. He must of have seen him do it.”  
  
“Look you’re tired.” Tyler said “You’re just trying to connect something bad that happened with someone you don’t like.”  
  
Wyatt turned to Aaron and ignored Tyler “If your friend had seen Wade push me off the roof would he have confronted him about it?”  
  
Aaron nodded “Most definitely, but only if he was perfectly sure of what he had seen.”  
  
“He was less than ten feet below me. He was right there to pull me back over the edge.”  
Wyatt said “Maybe he confronted Wade while they were getting the truck and Wade killed him to keep people from finding out what he did.”  
  
Aaron’s mind began racing trying to pick Wade’s story about what happened apart. Wade had said that Billy had gotten careless and that was why they had got separated from each other. Aaron knew full well that Billy wouldn’t have left Wade’s side until after the biters had all been dealt with. So either there had been too many biters to handle and they had been forced apart or Wade had simply shot Billy and left him for dead. Aaron shook his head, he couldn’t ignore the fact about how much Billy had hated going into the city now that the biters were wandering out from the fallen safe zone cordon. It was a very real possibility that his fear had overridden his training and had caused him to make a fatal mistake.  
  
“Only Wade knows what really happened.” Aaron said at last. “Until I have reason to do otherwise, I’ll have to take him at his word.”  
  
Wyatt deflated visibly. “He took ten of us on a scouting mission. We found a meat packing plant, he said we didn’t have to search the whole facility just the area we would be inhabiting for the next few days. We agreed with him because he was Army. We moved the thirty plus others in our group into the plant. Two hours later there were only five of us left.” He adopted a thousand yard stare “Wade’s choice to set up camp for the night cost all those lives and he didn’t show shed so much as a tear over it. Two days later we found two other survivors in a laundry mat and he shot them on the spot and looted their supplies. He never told us, Greg did a week later. He couldn’t live with that on his conscious. He said he kept quiet for as long as he did because Wade had threatened to kill him if he talked.”  
  
“I’m sorry that you’ve been through some tough shit, but we have as well and I fail to see your point.” Aaron said.  
  
“If Wade can live with losing thirty plus people and kill two people and threaten another’s life over supplies, I’m damn certain that he killed Billy to keep what he did to me a secret.”  
  
Aaron saw the true belief in his eyes. He looked over at Tyler. “What do you think?”  
  
Tyler let out a long sigh “If Wade really did push Wyatt off the roof and Billy did see it and confronted him about it….yeah I believe Wade would have killed him to cover it up.”  
  
Aaron thought about it for a moment. These two men knew Wade a lot better than he did and they were both telling him that he might have killed Billy. He got up from his chair and walked over to the shelf on the wall. He grabbed his SIG 9mm and handed it to Wyatt.  
  
“If he did kill Billy and tried to kill you, he might try to finish the job before you get well enough to defend yourself.” Wyatt took the gun “It’s fully loaded and the safety is on. You know how to use it right?”  
  
Wyatt gave an offended huff “Yeah I know how to use it. What’s the plan?”  
  
“Right now just sit tight he doesn’t know you‘re awake and I’ll try to keep it that way and keep an eye on Wade in the mean time.”  
  
“If he starts causing problems?” Wyatt asked.  
  
“I’ll fix the problem.”  
  
____________________  
  
  
“You’re an asshole! Do you know that?” Dillon exclaimed to Wade as they took up positions on the couch in their own condo.  
  
James had retired for the night and Connor was rummaging around in the kitchen doing something the two Rangers were too preoccupied to care about.  
  
“You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t apologize Sarge.” Wade said. His tone was uncaring and cold.  
  
“Billy was Aaron’s closest friend and you openly disrespected him in front of the people who lost him today.”  
  
“That asshole cop almost got me killed.” Wade said defensively “I did what I had to and to hell with anyone who doesn’t like it!”  
  
_I did what I had to._ The words rang in Dillon’s ears for a few seconds. He had known Wade for damn near eight years. The man had the ability to kill, he had been trained just the same as Dillon had. Sudden thoughts of Wade being the architect of Billy’s demise filled his head.  
_Nah, that isn’t Wade._ Dillon thought. _He may be an asshole but he wouldn’t murder someone in cold blood like that.  
_  
Dillon shook his head and tossed his dark thoughts up to stress and the sadness of the last hour.  
  
“So tell me about the female situation here.” Wade said reclining his head back against the sofa cushion behind him.  
  
“What about it?” Dillon asked.  
  
“I saw two good looking women out there today. Tell me about ‘em”  
  
Dillon actually laughed “You mean the one who was crying because of her boyfriend getting killed and the other women that was clinging to her.”  
  
“Yeah.” Wade said “Tell me about them.”  
  
“Well Victoria, the one who was crying, was Billy’s girlfriend I guess. They had lived together for the last few weeks since we found them. The other woman was her friend Rebecca, we found her in the same place. She is with Aaron and the recently adopted mother of a little girl named Kayli.”  
  
“Rebecca was the one in the jean shorts?”  
  
“Dude let it go.” Dillon said “You wont get her because she is with someone else and plus she’s just _way_ out of your league.”  
  
“I’m sure I can charm a one night stand out of her at any rate.”  
  
“What you’re going to do is charm Aaron’s fist right into your face.” Dillon laughed “It’s a pretty damned big fist and he’s a trained boxer so he knows how to use it. Effectively!”  
  
“Wont be the first time.”  
  
“Might be the last.” Dillon became serious “Aaron has done some pretty bad things on the behalf of that woman. I don’t know why he felt he had to do those things and I’m not going to ask. But to him…she is definitely worth killing for.”  
  
The grin that crossed the face of Wade Harris worried Dillon extremely.  
  
“Well Sarge, it looks like me and Aaron are going to have an interesting relationship.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Darkness had fully fallen outside and both Locke brothers had succumbed to their exhaustion on the couch. Aaron was still wide awake in his chair. His gaze darted between Tyler and Wyatt and the door. He didn’t know the two of them very well but felt that they weren’t a threat to him or the women in the other room, but he kept an eye on them just in case.  
No if there even was a real threat to him and his patchwork of a family within the safety of the complex’s walls, it was located on in the condo next door.  
  
Wade Harris.  
  
If Wyatt was to be believed then the Army Ranger was going to turn out to be a problem. Aaron had every intention of having a long, private discussion with Dillon about it the next day. Aaron was absently squeezing the handle of the 1911 pistol in his waistband while he stared at the door. Aaron couldn’t help but think about the accusations that Wyatt had made. There was no way, short of Wade confessing, for them to prove that he had actually been responsible for Billy’s death. If push came to shove though Aaron was confident that he could beat a confession out of Wade if he had to.  
  
The bedroom door creaked open and Aaron turned his gaze in the direction of the noise. Kayli wandered out into the darkness and began casting her gaze around the living room.  
  
“Aaron?” She called out into the dimly lit living room.  
  
“Over here.” He said back waving his hand at her in the orange light cast by the lamp on the coffee table.  
  
The little girl scuttled across the dark room and came to a stop on the arm of the chair. “I cant sleep.”  
  
“Because of what happened to Billy?” He asked reaching his arm around the chair and ruffling the small girl’s hair affectionately.  
  
“No.” She said “Tori and Trina are making too much noise.”  
  
Aaron grunted grimly “What about Rebecca?  
  
“She’s holding Trina.”  
  
The jealous note in the small girl’s voice was very evident.  
  
Aaron let a sad grin creep across his face “You aren’t sad about Billy?”  
  
“A little,” Kayli admitted “But not as bad as Trina is.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Aaron could see the confused look on the girls face even in the dim orange light. She looked at him as if the answer was sitting right in front of him.  
  
“Because I still have _you_.”  
  
Kayli climbed up into the chair and nestled up against him and fell asleep not much later after that. Aaron was left speechless as he comment fully sunk in. It was no secret to him that the little girl liked him, he just hadn’t known she had liked him that much. The feeling that he was being watched quickly overcame him and he looked up at the couch to see Wyatt staring at him and Kayli.  
  
“She yours?” He asked as he shifted his body to a more comfortable position on the couch.  
  
Aaron shook his head “No.”  
  
“She got a mom?”  
  
“Yeah, a recently adopted mom.”  
  
“That mom is affiliated with you?”  
  
“We became ‘affiliated’ this morning.” Aaron grinned in the dark.  
  
Wyatt laughed “I’m pretty sure I know what that means, but damn I never thought I’d ever see  
another kid again.”  
  
“Neither did I until a few weeks ago. Guess I made an impression on this one.” Aaron sighed.  
  
“Keep her safe man.” Wyatt said closing his eyes again “You most likely wont come across anymore. At least not any _live_ ones.”  
  
Wyatt fell asleep again leaving Aaron to stare down at the slumbering mass nestled against his chest. Wyatt didn’t need to tell him to keep Kayli safe. That had become Aaron’s plan the moment he decided to let Rebecca and Kayli move in with him.

  
Now that Billy was gone, it was his only plan.


	9. Chapter Nine: Fury

## Chapter Nine: Fury

 

Rebecca didn’t remember falling asleep.  
  
She just remembered waking up with a little girl wrapped up in her arms. She looked down at the little curled against her and smiled slightly. Her smile vanished rapidly when she realized the little girl in her arms wasn’t her little girl. It was Trina.  
  
The events of the previous day suddenly rushed back to her. How James and Billy had gone off in the early hours on a supply run into the city. Several hours later James and a group of new people returned telling everyone else that Billy was dead.  
The news had devastated Victoria and had made the still somewhat sickly little girl cry herself to sleep in Rebecca’s arms. Victoria was lying on her side away from Rebecca still sobbing heavily into the pillow.  
  
_Where is Kayli?_ Rebecca repeated the question to herself as she carefully removed the sleeping girl’s arms from around her and sat up glancing hurriedly around the room searching for the little girl. Rebecca became instantly angry with herself. In a moment of pity for Trina she had completely ignored the small girl that she had decided to adopt as her own. She didn’t know how bad Billy’s death had impacted Kayli, the little girl had been just as fond of him as Trina had been.  
  
Rebecca climbed off the bed and hurried for the door, stumping her toe on the bedpost as she did so. She swore and continued out the door, favoring her foot slightly. The sun had risen halfway and had filled the living room with a burnt orange light. Rebecca made out two shapes on the couch: two full grown men, one snoring much louder than the second. She knew right away that neither of the men were Aaron. He didn’t snore.  
  
She continued to glance around the living room and made out an irregular shape on one of the leather recliners next to the couch. There was a full grown man with a distinct, nine year old shaped bulge on his chest. Relief flooded through her instantly and she quickly made her way over to the chair. Kayli was sleeping soundly on Aaron’s large chest.  
Aaron however wasn’t sleeping. He was staring up at Rebecca with a disgruntled look that was easy to make out even in the lowlight of the living room.  
  
“Thank god she is with you.” Rebecca whispered as she crouched down next to the arm of the couch and reached out and ran her hand over Kayli’s matted brown hair. “I was worried sick about her.”  
  
“Yeah I bet you were.” Aaron grunted. “I understand you wanted to comfort Trina but she isn’t your responsibility. Kayli is.”  
  
Rebecca looked at Aaron with a confused expression “What are you talking about.”  
  
“Kayli came out here because she couldn’t sleep. She said Tori and Trina were making too much noise and that you were holding Trina.”  
  
“I was but that was-”  
  
“But nothing. You told Kayli you were going to be her mom, you need to start focusing on  
Kayli instead of everyone else. She is your number one priority.”  
  
Rebecca couldn’t believe she was being scolded. She didn’t feel like she hadn’t done anything wrong. She looked down at her feet for a few seconds.  
  
_But what if Kayli wanted to be held? I rolled over and basically turned my back on her while I held onto another child. I told her I would take care of her and I just forgot about her.  
_  
She looked back up at Aaron and felt horrible about herself, but Kayli seemed perfectly calm and content where she was.  
  
“You’re right Aaron. I just felt bad for Trina because Victoria doesn’t care for her the same way I care for Kayli.”  
  
“You cant worry about Trina, she isn’t your responsibility.” Aaron said.  
  
Aaron knew he sounded cold and uncaring but it didn’t change the fact that he was right.  
Rebecca leaned in and kissed Kayli on her forehead and then looked over her shoulder at the two men snoring on the couch.  
  
“What about them?”  
  
Aaron had returned his gaze to Kayli and had draped his tree trunk like arm over the small girl.  
  
“Tyler and Wyatt Locke. They seem decent enough and had some interesting things to say about Dillon’s friend.”  
  
“What do you mean by interesting?” Rebecca asked.  
  
“I’ll tell you later.” Aaron said “But you need to see if you can get Tori to check on Wyatt, he’s pretty banged up and I don’t know how to tell those pharmacy meds apart. I found some name brand over the counter stuff in one of the bags but it only held him over for a couple of hours.”  
  
“Yeah, when it gets a little lighter outside I’ll see if I can get her to look at him.” Rebecca said  
  
“Would you mind escorting me and Kayli over to Tori’s condo. I forgot some clothes over there and even though we’re in camp I don’t like walking in the dark.”  
  
Aaron looked back up at her and sighed. “Ok, I guess you can only wear the same clothing for so long.”  
  
Gently he prodded Kayli with his hand, waking her up. Her head lifted a few inches off of his chest and she looked around. “Hey Rebecca wants me to take her over to Victoria’s place to pick up some clothing she forgot. You want to stay here or do you want to come with us?”  
  
“Is Tori still crying?” Kayli asked sleepily.  
  
Rebecca nodded her head “Yeah.”  
  
Kayli shook her head “I’ll stay here, but in the chair.”  
  
“You sure?” Aaron asked.  
  
“Yeah I’ll be fine.”  
  
Aaron climbed out from under the child and went and got a blanket from Billy’s room. He made sure to grab a light one and not the heavy wool ones that had overheated Rebecca. He returned to the living room and found Rebecca crouched in front of the chair staring at Kayli.  
  
“You know I love you right Kayli.” She was saying “I’m sorry that I ignored you last night but I was just worried about Trina. Tori doesn’t show her the same attention I give you to you and I thought she could use that.”  
  
“I know.” Kayli replied “But I don’t like it.”  
  
“It wont happen again. You are my first and only priority.” Rebecca said giving the small girl a kiss on her cheek.  
  
Kayli brightened up immediately and let a big smile spread across her face. Rebecca smiled in turn and gave the girl a pat on her head. Aaron approached them and covered Kayli in the blanket and ruffled her hair and gave her a wink. He headed for the door but Rebecca didn’t move.  
  
“What about your gun?”  
  
He turned “What about it?”  
  
“Aren’t you going to bring it?”  
  
“It’s a thirty second walk from here to there Rebecca, I don’t think we’ll need it.” He said.  
  
“Just humor me.” she pleaded.  
  
“That seems to be mostly what I’ve done for the last few weeks.” he sighed as he grabbed his 1911 off the table and placed it in his waistband.  
  
“You know if you taught me how to shoot, I’d feel safer.”  
  
“Like I said before Mendoza is the certified instructor and would be better suited to teaching you.”  
  
Rebecca dropped the subject.  
  
Aaron had always been a little hostile towards her in the short few weeks she’d known him, but that had seemed like it had changed in the last few days. He had opened up to her about his past and had even had sex with her, but now it felt like he didn’t want to be around her at all. She suspected that it had something to do with Billy’s death.  
  
She was certain that the longer he held off grieving for his friend that he was only going to become more hostile towards her and everyone else and eventually explode on someone.  
How does Kayli manage to stay on his good side? she asked herself as the two of them walked out in the early morning sunrise. It would be a neat trick to learn.  
  
They entered Tori’s condo and Rebecca went upstairs to her old room and grabbed the clothing she had left behind in her haste to get away from Victoria: a pair a worn jeans and three t-shirts. She changed out of her current clothing and into one of the grey t-shirts and the jeans and pulled her hair back into a ponytail before heading back down stairs to find Aaron.  
He was seated on the small couch in the living room. He was holding his head in his hands and it didn’t take Rebecca very long to figure out why. She slowly walked over to him and sat down beside him. For a very long moment she just sat their motionless and silent, staring at his hunched over back. She tentatively put her hand between his shoulder blades and began to rub her hand up and down his back.  
  
“If you want to talk you know my ear is always ready to listen.” She said softly. Aaron pulled his face out of his hands and looked up at her. For the first time since she had met him his eyes were not portraying the hardened façade of a muscle bound brute. In fact they were actually portraying the opposite: his eyes looked lost and helpless.  
  
“There isn’t anything to talk about.”  
  
“You cant keep everything in forever. If you need to yell or cry or hit something then you go ahead and do it, but please for Kayli’s sake don’t let your grief ruin you.” Rebecca resisted the urge to smack him.  
  
Aaron looked at her for a few seconds. “Whatever. Are you ready to go?”  
  
“Look I need you to get your shit together Aaron. You might think that Billy was the only one who really cared about you and that me and Kayli only stick with you because you keep us alive, but you’re wrong.” Rebecca snapped “Yesterday when you were getting those shoes for Kayli, she looked at me and asked me if you would be her dad! That is how much she loves you and if you keep going down the road you are going, she’s going to lose you and I don’t want to have to watch that happen.”  
  
“Billy is dead. I accept it and there is no reason to sit around and cry about it. I’ve moved on.”  
  
“But you need to grieve-”  
  
“I’ve been losing people all my life!” Aaron yelled at her “I’ve lost my parents, my wife, my child and now my brother! I’m an old hand at dealing with death so don’t tell me I need to fucking grieve because I grieve almost every damn day.” The helplessness had vanished from his eyes and transformed into something feral and evil “I never asked for your or Kayli, no that was just Billy being Billy sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. You and that girl have been nothing but a burden to me since I found you. I should have left you to the biters and saved myself all the trouble.”  
  
Rebecca felt the tears well up in her eyes and the color drain from her skin. She knew this was him releasing his frustrations on her but she couldn’t help but take it to heart.  
  
“I know you don’t mean that.” her voice was quiet and shaky and she looked down at her hands as she spoke. She stood up “I have a few more things I need to grab before we go, sorry if it’s an inconvenience.”  
  
She climbed up off the couch and disappeared down the hallway. The sound of her sobs trailed behind her. Aaron seethed as he tried to ignore the sounds of her crying. He blamed her for Billy’s death, just as much as he blamed James, Victoria, and Billy himself.  
  
If Rebecca hadn’t been pushing so hard to get him into a relationship with her, Aaron could have focused harder on forcing Victoria to let him go back on runs instead of fighting off Rebecca’s advances.  
  
If Victoria hadn’t held off from giving him the ok to go back out on runs, and if Billy hadn’t encouraged her to do it, just so he would have to spend more time with Rebecca, Billy wouldn’t have had to have gone out with James.  
  
If James hadn’t gone after Wade and his group Billy wouldn’t have had to go after the supply truck with Wade and get swarmed, or if Wyatt and Tyler were right, get murdered by Wade for seeing something he shouldn’t have.  
  
He was angry with himself for allowing everyone to manipulate him into doing what they wanted him to do instead of doing what he wanted to do.  
  
He brought his large fist down onto the arm of the couch in frustration with his situation.  
Rebecca was still crying and it was obvious she didn’t have anything left to pack, she had just wanted to get away from him to cry it all out. Aaron stood up and walked down the hallway and found Rebecca with her face down on the kitchen table resting her forehead against her arms as she sobbed.  
  
Aaron approached her slowly “Hey it’s time to go.”  
  
“Just give me a minute.” Rebecca said thickly.  
  
Aaron sat down across from her and drummed his fingers on the table top. It wasn’t a very big table, his hand was about two inches from her arm. He sighed as he watched the woman sob heavily, almost on the verge of heaving. He had calmed down considerably since exploding on her and he didn’t feel very good about himself right then.  
  
He slowly reached his hand across the table and intertwined his fingers with hers. “I’m sorry I said that, you and Kayli have filled a huge void in my life. I don’t know what I would do without you.”  
  
She lifted her head and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I believe you Aaron, but I think there is some truth in what you said or you wouldn’t have said it at all.”  
  
Aaron looked away.  
  
“I know I’ve asked you to do a lot of things that haven’t been easy and I know Kayli can be a handful and that she had to have worn your patience down to nothing. So if I ever ask you to do something you know you cant do and if Kayli becomes too bothersome, just say so and I wont ask you to do anything and I’ll tell Kayli to leave you alone.”  
  
“That’s not what I want.” Aaron said.  
  
“Well what do you want?”  
  
“I just want things to be like they used to, no dead walking the streets trying to eat us, to have a real family and have all of my friends around.”  
  
Rebecca looked at him sadly “That isn’t going to happen Aaron. The dead aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, the people in this camp are your family now and you cant bring back the friends you’ve lost. You have to live with what you have, and for most of us that isn’t very much but it’s enough.”  
  
“I know.” Aaron whispered. “Is it wrong to want more?”  
  
“No.” Rebecca said standing up and walking over to his side of the table and sitting in his lap  
  
“You already have more than most others in the camp. You have me and Kayli and we both love you, expecting anymore is just unrealistic.” She positioned herself so she was straddling him. “I really am sorry about Billy, but he isn’t the only one who cares about you and you aren’t the only person who cared about him.”  
  
“I know that.” his arms wrapped around her.  
  
Rebecca gave him a small smile “Good.’  
  
She pressed her face against his and kissed him. Aaron gripped her tightly and stood up and carried her down the hallway and sat down on the couch and tried to beat Rebecca to being the first one to get undressed.  
  
____________________  
  
  
When Wyatt woke up he thought something was severely wrong.  
  
There was an immense pressure on his chest and stomach and pain was racing up his injured side. His eyes finally opened all the way and he quickly determined that the pressure on his body was not caused by his injuries but rather the two little girls sitting on his prone body. They were staring at him as if he was some weird animal in a cage at the zoo. He recognized the brown haired girl as the one that had climbed into the chair with Aaron the previous night, but he didn’t recognize the small blonde haired girl on his right.  
  
He lifted his head up and looked at the duo. “Mind if I ask why you’re sitting on me?”  
  
“The other man told us if we did that you would stop making those weird noises in your  
sleep.” the brown haired girl said.  
  
“What noises?” Wyatt asked.  
  
“You snore little bro.” Tyler said from somewhere down the hall behind the couch. “Loudly.”  
  
“Do not.” Wyatt said.  
  
“Do to.” Tyler replied back.  
  
“I do not snore!”  
  
“Yes you do.”  
  
“Alright let me put an end to this.” Victoria said as she emerged from the kitchen area and walked into the living room. “It is my medical opinion you do snore when you sleep.”  
  
“Yeah and you are?” Wyatt asked sitting up after shooing away the two girls who had been sitting on him.  
  
“Victoria Lawrence.” She said “The doctor around here.”  
  
“Oh.” Wyatt said looking away from her “You were Billy’s-”  
  
“I was his friend, yes.” Victoria cut him off “I’d love to spend all day crying over him but the girls are hungry and you’re hurt. So here I am, it‘s probably for the best.” Her voice was bitter and sarcastic and Wyatt could easily see that her eyes were bloodshot from all the crying she had done. “So take your shirt off while I give the girl’s their breakfast and then I’ll give you a once over.”  
  
The two girls scurried over to Victoria as she pulled out a couple of toaster pastries from a box of MREs in the kitchen and waved them at the girls like someone would do with dog treats. Wyatt slowly pulled his shirt off and grunted with the effort as he did so. By the time he got the t-shirt off both girls were sitting on either side of him again munching on pop-tarts.  
  
“He’s all lumpy like Aaron and Dillon.” Trina said.  
  
“Yeah it’s kinda gross.” Kayli said.  
  
Victoria laughed as she nudged Kayli aside and began assessing Wyatt’s injuries. “One day girls when you’re older, you’ll think very differently.”  
  
“I don’t think so.” Kayli said.  
  
“Oh believe me, you will.” Victoria leaned over Wyatt and pulled the bandage off of his forehead and checked the cut underneath. It wasn’t bleeding anymore but it wasn’t going to heal without stitches. She added that to her list of things to do today before moving down to the discolored skin on his ribcage. She ran her hand around the discolored flesh, barely putting any pressure on it at all and Wyatt flinched as if she had stuck him with a branding iron.  
  
“Sorry, sorry.” she said as she eased her hand back onto the injury. The bones under his skin didn’t feel right to her touch. He surely had cracked, or worse broken, ribs and she could only give him pain meds and let the bones mend on their own. Just for the sake of being thorough she started grabbing and pressing against the other side of his ribcage. “Does that hurt?”  
  
“No actually it feels pretty good.”  
  
She smiled slightly though she didn’t feel happy or good in general, it was just a reflex from years working in a hospital. “Ok, stitches for the cut and pain meds for your ribs which are going to have to heal on their own.” Tyler walked around the corner and she pointed at him “You go bring me some of those duffel bags so I can find the right meds for your brother.”  
Tyler didn’t question her and came back with two large duffel bags. It didn’t take Victoria long to find a prescription strength antibiotic and pain killer. She gave Wyatt one of each and then disappeared for a few seconds before reappearing with a needle and spool of fishing wire.  
“Either of you have a lighter?” she asked.  
  
Once again Tyler fished around in his pocket and pulled out a flat black Zippo and handed it to her. She took it, said thank you and began heating the tip of the needle to sterilize it.  
  
“This isn’t going to be fun is it?” Wyatt said grimly as he watched the flame dance around the needle.  
  
“No probably not.” Victoria confirmed as she handed the lighter back to Tyler and began  
sewing the cut on Wyatt’s forehead closed.  
  
She was somewhat impressed with Wyatt. He didn’t wince and grunt like Aaron had.  
  
“So umm is the little blonde one yours?” he asked her as he kept his eyes on the two girls playing with some battered dolls.  
  
“Yeah that’s my Trina, I’m not her mother though just her newfound guardian.” Victoria said without looking away from the needle in her hand.  
  
“Didn’t want to be a mom?”  
  
“You need to be quiet so I can concentrate.” Victoria said trying to avoid the subject.  
  
Wyatt didn’t say another word.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Aaron and Rebecca both got dressed in silence.  
  
Aaron couldn’t help but get the feeling that Rebecca hadn’t fully forgiven him like she said she did. Something about the look she had on her face every time she looked at him gave him a sad feeling like she didn’t trust him anymore. He wasn’t overly bothered by it though, he was positive he could win her back and accepted that he was going to be on the receiving end of some cold stares for a while after saying what he’d said no matter if he had meant it or not.  
  
“You got everything?” he asked as he finished pulling on his boots and looked around the room.  
  
Rebecca tossed the clothing she had originally come for into a knapsack and nodded “Yeah looks like it.”  
  
Aaron knew by her tone that she was still mad at him. He thought better of pressing the issue and stood up off the couch. Rebecca did the same and pulled one of the knapsack straps over her shoulder and started out the door. She opened it and stepped out into the morning air. The sun had finally risen over the horizon and shined it’s blazing rays at the group inside the condominium complex. Rebecca was moving at a quick pace and had already made it halfway across the courtyard before Aaron even stepped out of the other condo.  
  
Dillon and Wade were standing in front of the black pick up truck parked in the middle of the courtyard. The had placed the travelers map of Albany over the hood and were discussing several locations within the local area that might have a few more supplies to offer. Wade’s head lifted up from their conversation as Rebecca passed behind the two men and he watched her as she walked by.  
  
It was a spur of the moment idea. He reached out and grabbed her by her upper arm and roughly pulled her towards him.  
  
“What the fuck!” Rebecca said.  
  
Wade grinned at her as he eyed her over “Such a shame you aren’t wearing those shorts. You filled them out quite nicely.”  
  
Wade then promptly slapped her hard on her ass. Before Dillon could intervene, Wade felt a large hand grab him by the back of his hair and then felt his head slam against the hood of the pick up truck, once, twice, three, four times before he felt himself being hurled to the ground. The hand that had grabbed him suddenly became a fist that had now begun to impact against the side of his face over and over. Wade’s vision became obstructed by the blood that had begun to flow from the wound that had opened on the bridge of his nose, but he could still see the large mass of Aaron Reese standing over him continuing to pummel him.  
  
Dillon made no move to stop Aaron but had gently moved Rebecca out of the way behind him so she didn’t get hurt accidentally. Aaron stood up and looked down at Wade.  
  
“You ever fucking touch her again and I will not stop next time. Not until you are a lifeless and bloodied mess. Do you understand me?!” he yelled.  
  
Wade didn’t respond.  
  
Aaron kicked him hard in the stomach causing the man to curl into the fetal position and start coughing loudly.  
  
“I said do you understand me?” Aaron growled aggressively.  
Wade nodded his head, unable to speak through the pain he was feeling.  
  
“Good.” Aaron said as he turned to Dillon “You should keep your dog a leash before he does something that’ll get him put down.”  
  
“I already told him to stay away from her Aaron.” Dillon said “Not my fault if he doesn’t listen.”  
  
Aaron looked down at his hand. His knuckles were split and his hand was swollen slightly. He wiggled his fingers to see if there was any damage but they all moved effortlessly “You know I expected a little more of a fight from an Army Ranger.”  
  
Dillon’s eyes narrowed at the slight against his unit, something he was very proud and protective of. “Maybe next time you shouldn’t jump him from behind.”  
  
Aaron and Dillon locked gazes for a few tense seconds. James, Tyler, Sam, John and Greg had all wandered outside to a certain degree to observe the melee. Rebecca put her hand on Aaron’s stomach and began pushing him in the direction of his condo.  
  
“Come on it’s over, let’s go back and check on Kayli.” Aaron turned around and started off towards his condo. This time Rebecca stayed in step with him. She looped her arm around his waist and smiled up at him “I’m still up set at you for what you said earlier, but _that_ just bought you some serious brownie points.”  
  
“Whatever.” Aaron said dismissively.  
  
He walked inside the condo and found Victoria practically straddling Wyatt while she sewed the cut on his forehead shut.  
  
“Aaron please tell me that no one outside is going to be needing medical attention.” She said without looking up from her work.  
  
“Other than an ice-pack for my hand everyone is fine.”  
  
“Why do you need an ice-pack?”  
  
“I just punched Wade out.”  
  
Victoria had to grab hold of Wyatt’s head to keep him from looking over at Aaron.  
  
“Why’d you do that?” he asked once Victoria resumed stitching him up.  
  
“He grabbed Rebecca and smacked her ass.” Aaron said. “Oh by the way in case you havent figured it out yet this is Rebecca,” he pointed at Rebecca as she walked in behind him.  
  
“Rebecca this is Tyler Locke, the guy on the couch getting sewn up is his younger brother Wyatt.”  
  
“Hi.” Rebecca said halfheartedly as she dropped her knapsack on the floor and plopped into one of the chairs in the room. Kayli climbed off the couch and climbed up into her lap.  
  
“Are you ok?” she asked Rebecca.  
  
“Yeah, thanks to Aaron.”  
  
Victoria finished stitching Wyatt’s cut and climbed off of him and grabbed Aaron’s wrist and inspected his hand. “Yeah and ice-pack ought to do it. What about Wade?”  
  
“Broken nose, black eye and a phat lip.” Aaron said “I wouldn’t worry about him.”  
  
Aaron sat down on the couch next to Wyatt while Victoria went and grabbed an ice-pack from one of the first aid kits they had.  
  
“Wish I could have seen Wade get the shit kicked out of him.”  
  
Kayli poked Rebecca “How come he gets to say Billy words?”  
  
Aaron laughed and Wyatt looked at him “What’s a Billy word?”  
  
“Any profanity or curse word. Tori and Rebecca don’t like them being used around the girls but Billy never really paid any attention to that rule so they started telling the girls not to use Billy Words.”  
  
Wyatt grunted “Well I’ll try to keep my language clean, but no promises.”  
  
“They things have gone today, I really wouldn’t care.” Rebecca said already feeling tired.  
  
Aaron sighed as well. It already felt like it was noon, but the day hadn’t even started yet.


	10. Chapter Ten: Evolution

## Chapter Ten: Evolution

 

Aaron rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands and sighed as he sat back in his chair. He looked around the small living room and noticed how virtually ever seat was filled by someone. Rebecca was seated in the chair opposite him with Kayli in her lap. She was stroking the small girls hair absent mindedly while she stared off into the nothingness. Tyler was seated on the couch next to his younger brother and Trina was seated in between them entertaining them with horrible knock-knock jokes that the two men politely laughed at.  
  
But as Aaron looked around the room he noticed Victoria had disappeared. She had given him his ice-pack and had wandered off again without anyone seeming to notice. He didn’t hear her moving around in the kitchen area or the hallway either so he pulled himself up out of his chair and decided to go find her and make sure she was ok.  
  
Aaron only kept the people in the camp safe and thus felt that Victoria was a much more important asset to the group. She kept everyone healthy. If people started getting sick and she wasn’t able to do anything because she was still upset over Billy, things could get bad in a quickness. He walked passed the couch without Wyatt or Tyler noticing as they paid attention to the blonde haired girl’s childish and bad jokes. He made it by Rebecca without her even glancing up at him, whether it was because she was thinking about what had happened outside or their argument and was still mad at him and simply ignoring him he didn’t know, but he kept moving.  
  
He was surprised that Kayli hadn’t said anything to him as he walked by her. She was just sitting in Rebecca’s lap with her head pressed against her adoptive mother’s chest and staring at the wall. This troubled him a lot more than he knew it should have. The little girl was usually so outgoing and vibrant in complete contrast with the world she was living in. He assumed she was just being quiet because she was picking up on her new mom’s emotions and was worried about her.  
  
Yeah that sounded like Kayli.  
  
Aaron walked down the hallway to his bedroom and that was where he found Victoria. She was sitting on the edge of his bed with her forehead resting on her hands.  
  
"You ok?" Aaron asked as he walked into the room.  
  
Victoria shook her head "How do you do it Aaron? How can you walk around and act as if Billy isn’t dead."  
  
"I'm just good at dealing with loss," He said quietly "I've been dealing with it most of my life."  
  
Victoria looked at him for a few long and sorrowful seconds. "Probably a good skill to have in the new world." Victoria said somberly. "Your just...so calm and collected."  
  
Aaron sat down on the bed next to her and put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.  
  
"Well it's because I got all of my anger out already, well most of it anyway."  
  
"On Wade?"  
  
"Yeah but not all of it was taken out on him, Rebecca and I were getting some of her clothes from your place and we started talking. She was just trying to be nice and console me but I didn't want it." Aaron sighed and stared off into space. "I snapped on her and said a lot of things that I really didn’t mean, all the anger I had been feeling towards people just exploded out of me. I did apologize later and she accepted it, but I know she is still hurt and might night ever fully forgive me."  
  
"It was that bad?"  
  
"Yeah." Aaron nodded his head. "All the anger I had towards myself for saying what I did was expended when I started beating Wade. But I'm still angry."  
  
"At Billy?"  
  
"Yeah and Rebecca and James and....you."  
  
"Me?"  
  
"Look I don’t want to make you feel worse than you already do but you and Billy kept me from going back out on runs in order to force me to spend time with Rebecca. Because of that Billy had to go out with James, James took Billy to save Wyatt's group because he has to save every poor soul stranded out there. Even though Wyatt and his people have bolstered our numbers, I'd happily trade all of them for Billy."  
  
Victoria looked up at him. Aaron expected her to be mad at him for blaming her for Billy's death. He wouldn't blame her if she was. "You're right Aaron, we shouldn’t have forced you and Rebecca together. I'm sure it would've happened naturally. You were ready to go back out on runs a week ago but Billy wanted you to stay here and talked me into going along with his plan." She looked away "Maybe if I hadn’t gone along with it, he'd still be here today."  
  
Aaron squeezed her with his arm and began rubbing her shoulder with his hand. "We can't change what happened, we just have to live with it and move on with our lives."  
  
"I don’t know what I'm going to do." She began crying. "Billy was so much better with Trina than I am, she clings to me like I'm her mother and I let her because I’m too afraid to tell her that I don’t want her to."  
  
Aaron now found himself in an awkward position. He was now doing the same thing that Rebecca had tried with him not even thirty minutes earlier. He knew there was a very big difference between his state of mind at that time and Victoria's right now though. He didn’t want to be coddled and told everything was going to fine, Victoria did.  
  
"Look either way you slice it, Trina is yours now. Billy wouldn't want you to give up on her and he damn sure wouldn’t want you to abandon her." He tried to say it as gently as possible.  
"You'll get through this Tori, you're a lot tougher than you think you are. You just have to realize it."  
  
Victoria looked up at him with a sad smile on her face "You seem so certain. I wish I was that certain about myself." She looked around the bedroom "Thank you for letting me and Trina stay here with you guys."  
  
"Don’t mention it." Aaron said back.  
  
"I think we'll only spend one more night here, tomorrow you can help me move those meds over to my place so I can sort them."  
  
"Are you sure you want to do that?"  
  
"I'm the only doctor here, I have responsibilities just like you guys who keep the biters away. I cant afford to ignore them for too long. Besides it'll give me something to do other than sit around and think about Billy."  
  
Aaron understood that feeling very well. "Alright, tomorrow I'll help you move those meds into your place."  
  
Victoria nodded her head and stood up "Thanks for everything. I'm gonna go find Trina now and try to live up to Billy's reputation."  
  
Aaron laughed genuinely for the first time in a long time "Good luck with that. He was one of a kind."  
  
"Yeah. He was."  
  
Victoria walked out of the room and Aaron was left sitting on the bed by himself. He rubbed his face with his hands and let out a frustrated sigh. He couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t have been like that with Rebecca earlier. He could have set aside some of his anger and talked it out with her and avoided the whole argument altogether. He sighed heavily. If there was one thing he had learned in the last few months it was that dwelling on the past wasn’t a good idea.  
  
He lifted his hands from his face and looked up and found Rebecca standing in front of him. The door to the bedroom was closed. He looked up at her and the expression on her face didn’t enhance her beauty in any way at all.  
  
"What?" He asked.  
  
"Is there any reason why you could talk to Tori but not to me?" Rebecca asked angrily.  
  
_Well fuck._ Aaron thought to himself "Look all I tried to do was make her feel better."  
  
"That's what I was trying to do but you had to yell and scream at me. Do you like Tori more than me or something?"  
  
"What?!" Aaron asked incredulously "Why would I like her more than you?" He said not liking her accusation at all.  
  
"You seemed to be pretty happy to have her lean on you like that."  
  
"All she did was rest her head on my shoulder.'  
  
"And you hugged her."  
  
"Oh for fuck's sake Rebecca. So I gave the girlfriend of my best friend, my recently dead best friend, a fucking hug. Do you really think I'd cheat on you after all the shit I've done for  
you?"  
  
"Look as long as you know you belong to ME!" Rebecca snarled and jabbed her thumb into her chest.  
  
Aaron stared at her darkly for a few long seconds and rose up off the bed slowly. For some reason Rebecca really noticed how tall and muscular Aaron was at that moment.  
  
"I am not your personal property." Aaron said quietly. His voice made his words seem extremely threatening. "Your name is not printed anywhere on my body that I can see."  
  
"My face is fucking tattooed on your back!"  
  
"That is not your face!" Aaron yelled at her as he closed the small gap between them and towered over the shorter woman. "That has never been or will ever be your face. You aren’t half the woman she was!"  
  
Rebecca's eyes narrowed to the point of becoming practically slits and her breathing intensified as she locked gazes with Aaron.  
  
"At least me and my child are still alive."  
  
Aaron's body language changed instantly. His shoulders sagged slightly and his eyes lost their sharp intensity as they began to water. His jaw muscles began to clench and his right hand slowly curled into a grapefruit sized fist. Rebecca felt as if she had evened the score between them with her remark, but it had probably cost her the relationship she had had with Aaron even though it had technically only been official for a few days.  
  
Aaron swallowed hard and looked at Rebecca. "That's my fault just like everything else."  
  
Rebecca felt the feeling of victory flee from her along with all the air that had been in her lungs. Aaron had scored another point in the sick game they were caught up in. Aaron sat down on the bed and stared at his hands while they rested in his lap. Rebecca followed suit but made sure to put some space in between them.  
  
"It's over isn’t it?" she asked quietly without looking at him.  
  
Aaron nodded somberly "Yeah. I think it is."  
  
"I'm sorry about bringing your wife and kid up." Rebecca said after a few seconds "I shouldn’t have done that."  
  
"I shouldn’t have told you about them in the first place."  
  
Aaron brought his finger to his eye and looked as if he was scratching an itch but Rebecca  
knew he was wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. she found it oddly amusing that he felt he had to portray the unfeeling brute even now.  
  
"We cant start over with a clean slate?" she asked. Things may have become tense between them but Rebecca knew that Aaron was the best thing that had come into her life along with  
Kayli.  
  
Aaron shook his head "There is no such thing. If we just started over it would be tainted by the thing's we've just said."  
  
"What do we tell Kayli?"  
  
"She's your kid Rebecca, you figure it out."  
  
The door to the room opened and, as if on cue, Kayli came skipping into the room after shutting the door behind her. She climbed up into the space between Aaron and Rebecca and beamed up at Aaron.  
  
"I made you something Aaron." She thrusted a piece of folded printer paper at him and he took it from her with a forced smile.  
  
"You did?" he asked with mock excitement as he unfolded the piece of paper. After he unfolded the paper he felt a throbbing pain seep into his chest as he took in the crudely drawn images of himself and Rebecca standing just in front of a big pink heart holding hands. Scribbled at the bottom of the page in red crayon were the words: I LOVE MY NEW MOM AND DAD. He handed the image to Rebecca and then smiled down at Kayli after ruffling her hair. "Thank you Kayli, that was very sweet."  
  
Kayli had clearly been expecting a different response from him. She turned her head towards Rebecca and back to Aaron a few times and was obviously coming to the conclusion that something was amiss.  
  
"Are you two arguing?" she asked.  
  
Aaron saw no point in lying to the small girl. "Not anymore, no."  
  
"Kayli," Rebecca said slowly and softly as she folded the picture and gave it back to Aaron  
  
"Me and Aaron are breaking up and we're going to move back in with Tori and Trina."  
  
Kayli shook her head "No, I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with Aaron."  
  
"You cant Kayli." Rebecca said.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because I'm your mom and I said we're going."  
  
"He's my dad and-"  
  
"I'm not your dad Kayli." Aaron said "I'm just doing my job as a police officer by making sure  
you are safe." The hurt look that fell across the small girl's face threatened to tear Aaron's heart in half "Do what Rebecca says, she is your mom."  
  
Kayli blinked and tears fell down her cheeks as she started to cry. She threw herself up higher on the bed so her face was in the pillows. The soft pillows absorbed most of her sobbing but not all of it. Rebecca looked down at the little girl with a sad expression on her face and she started rubbing Kayli's small back. Aaron stared down at her as well but didn’t dare to touch her or console her, he knew he'd be doomed to staying in a relationship with Rebecca if Kayli's despair beat down his defenses.  
  
He climb off the bed and started for the door as Rebecca laid down next to Kayli and began to quietly comfort her. The little girl pulled her head out of the pillows just enough to make her words understandable.  
  
"Why do my Dads keep leaving me?" she asked Rebecca in a very shaky voice.  
  
Aaron had been seconds from turning the doorknob, but once again his body didn’t relay the signals from his brain to where they were supposed to go and he found himself rooted to the spot with his head turned towards the bed.  
  
"My real dad locked me in that room with Trina and Connor and said he would be right back but he never did and now Aaron is leaving me to." She sobbed "Is it my fault?"  
  
Rebecca looked as if she had just gulped down a large container of broken glass as she tried to swallow and bring some moisture to her mouth.  
  
"No Kayli it isn't your fault." Rebecca fixed Aaron with a broken stare as she pulled Kayli tight to her. "Your Dad didn’t leave you, it was the walkers. I'm sure he loved you very much."  
  
"And Aaron?" Kayli said thickly.  
  
Rebecca didn’t know what to say and looked up at Aaron for help but he didn’t move from where he stood. His eyes had that deer-in-the-headlights appearance as he looked down at Kayli. He wasn’t even paying any attention at all to Rebecca.  
  
Aaron counted the long unbearable seconds by using the deep thumping of his heartbeat in his eardrums. His brain screamed at his hand to twist the doorknob and for his legs to walk out the door. His hand moved and his legs began walking.  
  
Just not in the direction he had wanted them to go.  
  
He was walking back to the bed and before he could blink he found himself laying on the opposite side of Kayli sandwiching her between Rebecca and himself.  
  
"Kayli, I'm not going anywhere." He said as he gently grabbed her shoulder and rolled her over to face him. "I'm not going to abandon you."  
  
Kayli crawled closer to him and wrapped him in a loose hug and cried into his chest. Rebecca stared at him for a few seconds and he stared back at her.  
  
"You're going to try to makes this work?" She asked as she stroked the top of Kayli's head.  
  
"Not for you." Aaron said "For her."  
  
____________________  
  
  
**_The next day  
_**  
  
Rebecca stared up at the ceiling and drummed her fingers on her relatively firm stomach. She was alone, mostly because she had wanted to be. Aaron had gone over to Victoria's to drop off some empty boxes she had asked for, The Locke brothers were out at the front gate with Dillon and John helping to barricade the street to slow the few walkers that had started wandering in the direction of their camp, how Wyatt was going to be any help with that she didn’t know. The other woman in the camp, Samantha, was busy exercising in the courtyard under the watchful gaze of the old man that Aaron had said was her father. Connor was minding his own business as usual trying to avoid getting wrapped up in other peoples affairs. It was probably the smart thing to do. Kayli and Trina were off somewhere, probably with Aaron.  
  
Rebecca was happy to have the silence in the small bedroom and to have everyone else doing something outside so she could just lay here and think. She knew she was in a relationship with someone who really was only in it to keep a little girl from being crushed. That was partially Rebecca's own fault. She hadn't started the verbal sparring matches between herself and Aaron, but she had said some of the more hurtful things. Yes Aaron had told her that he wished the walkers had gotten to her first, and that was a horrible thing to say. But somehow the comment Rebecca had made about Aaron's deceased wife and unborn child seemed to be the worst thing said in the whole conversation. It seemed worse because he had lost them way before the world had gone to Hell.  
  
She knew Aaron had decided to ignore her, because he had spent the rest of the previous day cuddled up with Kayli and showing her some simple survival skills like rope tying and fire starting. He hadn’t said one single word to her though, no his focus had been solely on the little girl who had convinced him to stay with Rebecca. Rebecca had noticed that when Aaron was looking at Kayli his eyes became soft and warm and his expression made him appear to be in a good mood, but when he looked at her his expression changed drastically. His face became tense and his eyes cold and uncaring.  
  
She didn't doubt that if she really did ever need him to save her life again that it really could be a fifty-fifty chance that he would leave her to die or not. Rebecca still knew that Aaron was not only her best chance at surviving, but also the best thing that had ever happened to her and she couldn’t let herself accept that their relationship might be permanently ruined. She let out a long tired sigh and rubbed her eyes before she sat up. The decision had basically made itself. She needed to smooth things over with Aaron, or at least make the attempt. She pulled on her worn-out Chuck Taylor high tops and walked out of the bedroom she had spent a very tense and lonely night in.  
  
She walked out into the living room and found a small note stuck to the door with her name on it. She opened it and read: REBECCA WE NEED TO TALK LATER.  
  
After the small line of text there was a small smiley face scribbled. The small smiley face filled her with a good and lucky feeling that felt really out of place with her current situation. She tucked the note into her back pocket and smiled feeling a little better than she had a few moments earlier.  
  
Judging by her internal clock Rebecca guessed that Aaron had been at Victoria's for a little over twenty minutes. Which was a hell of a long time considering he had just been dropping off boxes. Rebecca crossed the courtyard and saw out of the corner of her eye that Kayli and Trina were actually exercising with Samantha and her father. Rebecca stopped for a second and wondered why the two girls weren’t with Aaron like they had been earlier after he had left. She shrugged and decided if the girls were safe that it didn’t matter. She ignored the thought and continued over to Victoria's house. The clang of the large door, that Dillon had manufactured, hit her ear drums as the massive machine closed.  
  
The door was open slightly so Rebecca walked in.  
  
Instantly she knew something wasn’t right. She didn’t see either Aaron or Victoria in the downstairs portion of the condo. The boxes Aaron had dropped off were sitting just near the front door and just before the entrance to the living room was a pile of black clothing. She stopped cold as she noticed the large white writing on the back of one of the pieces. It was body armor, the same exact kind Aaron had been wearing when he'd left the condo earlier. He had planned on going on a quick run up the street with Tyler later.  
  
Her heart rate pounded in her ears as she stared at the vest and the clothing littered around it as her mind jumped immediately to the worst possible conclusions. Then she heard it, a gentle smacking sound that was all too familiar to her. She slowly rounded the corner and her heart froze when she discovered the source of the sound.  
  
Victoria was straddling a large man and both of them were naked from the waste down. Neither of them saw Rebecca and Rebecca didn’t try to draw any attention to herself, at least not yet. She tried to get a good look at the man's face to make sure it was Aaron, but Victoria's upper body was in the way. His arms were large and Rebecca could make out portion of jet-black here and there.  
  
Just like Aaron's.  
  
She added up the boxes, the body armor, the two girls being where the weren’t supposed to and the connection to Billy that both he and Victoria shared and her mind decided this was the worst outcome imaginable: Aaron was cheating on her with her best friend.  
  
Rebecca slowly backed out of the room being careful not to make any noise. She was going to deal with Victoria eventually but first she needed to fix Aaron. If that was how he wanted to do things then Rebecca was game to go along with it. She just needed to find a way to get even.  
  
She scanned the courtyard for any source of inspiration and it hit her quickly. She crossed the courtyard again and walked up the door of another condo and knocked three times. The door opened quickly.  
  
"What the hell do you want?"  
  
Rebecca inhaled and steadied herself for what she was about to do.  
  
"I'm here to give you what you wanted."  
  
With that she threw herself at Wade Harris.  
  
____________________  
  
  
**_Three minutes earlier  
_**  
  
Aaron shut the massive door Dillon had created as quietly as he could but it still made a loud clanging sound. He cringed as he secured the latch.  
  
"Fuck you think you could have made this thing any bigger?" he asked Dillon as the Army Ranger grabbed on to a large metal beam on the ground. Tyler walked over and lifted the opposite end.  
  
"Yeah I could have but it wouldn’t have been practical." Dillon said as he and Tyler carried the large metal beam and stacked it onto five others in a long line that acted as a barrier between the encroaching biters and their camp.  
  
"That loud noise isn’t practical either." Aaron countered as he scanned the street for threats.  
The biters had started wandering into their perimeter a day or so after Tyler and his group had come back with James. First it had been ones and twos but now it was up to five or seven at a time and it was only getting worse. It was getting to the point that they were discussing moving the camp somewhere else.  
  
"Well feel free to tear the damn thing down." Dillon said as he released his grip on the beam and wiped away the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. "See how long you last with a fucking huge whole in the front wall."  
  
Aaron shook his head and continued searching for threats. It was why he was out here to begin with, to provide security with John while Dillon and Tyler built up the defenses.  
  
"Where is Wyatt?" Aaron asked.  
  
"He went to go see Tori. He said his side was acting up." Tyler said as he stretched his back muscles a little.  
  
"He wasn’t lifting any of this shit was he?"  
  
"No, he stood off to the side and offered creative input." Tyler said "That's his specialty."  
Aaron nodded. The next thirty minutes seemed to take days to go by as Aaron stood around and watched for biters and occasionally offer creative input on the barrier, all of which Dillon ignored. He and Tyler both dropped their final beam into place and sighed.  
  
"That should do it for now." Dillon said.  
  
Tyler agreed and turned to face Aaron. "Hey me and Wyatt found a deck of cards in a drawer last night. We were thinking about having a card game, you three want to join?"  
  
Dillon, Aaron and John looked at each other and shrugged. "What the hell, it isn’t like I'm going to lose my paycheck or anything."  
  
The four men headed back inside and over the Aaron's condo. Wyatt was already seated on the couch with his feet on the table and his eyes closed. Tyler slapped him on the back of his head.  
  
"What the fuck!" Wyatt exclaimed as he looked up at his older brother "Cant you see I'm trying to sleep?"  
  
"Why? You didn’t do much of anything." John said.  
  
"The doc looked me over and told me to get some rest and that's what I'm doing."  
  
"Now you're going to play some poker." Tyler said fishing out the old deck of cards and tossing them to Wyatt. "Your dealing."  
  
Wyatt caught the cards and looked around at the other men as they took seats in the form of a loose circle.  
  
"Alright, hope you guys are just as good at cards as you are shooting."  
  
"Shut up and deal." Dillon said.  
  
____________________  
  
  
Rebecca exited Wade's condo feeling pleased with herself. She was certain that when she confronted Aaron with her evidence against him and the bombshell she was going to drop on him directly afterwards would no doubt achieve the desired effect. She was also surprised Wade had turned out to be a good partner, though he was a little more rougher with her than Aaron had been he still hadn’t hurt her. If it came down to it she felt that Wade might have the abilities needed to keep her safe, after all he was an Army Ranger.  
  
She felt a smirk cross her face as she walked up to the door of the condo she shared with Aaron and the Locke brothers. She could hear the voices of several men inside. They all sounded to be in good spirits and she couldn’t wait to humiliate Aaron in front of them.  
She grabbed the doorknob and turned it and walked into the condo. Aaron looked up over his shoulder and smiled at her.  
  
_Smile all you want bastard. Two can play this game._ She thought as she walked towards him.  
  
"Hey, you said you wanted to talk to me?" She said as she moved in to stand behind him and put her hands on his shoulders.  
  
"Yeah but we can do that later."  
  
"We can do it now if you want, it's not like your going to win with that hand anyway."  
  
The guys around the coffee table laughed as Aaron gave Rebecca a disgruntled look and dropped his cards on the table.  
  
"Fine we can talk now if you want." Aaron said.  
  
"Good because I've got something I want to say to you to." Rebecca said.  
  
"Ok." Aaron turned in his seat a little to look at her.  
  
"I know what you were doing earlier in Tori's place."  
  
"Yeah dropping off boxes."  
  
"No, I'm talking about after that. I saw you fucking her."  
  
The card game around the table came to a halt instantly. Wyatt had been drinking from a water bottle when Rebecca had spoke and he sewed water all over Dillon and Tyler.  
  
"Rebecca." He coughed as he tried to stop her but he couldn’t clear his windpipe of the encroaching water quick enough.  
  
Rebecca's facial features contorted into an unattractive mess as she stared down at Aaron.  
  
"I didn’t fuck Tori, I was with Dillon, Tyler and John for the last forty minutes or so."  
  
"I know it was you because I found your body armor on the floor."  
  
"Rebecca." Wyatt coughed some more and Dillon gave him a hard slap on the back to try and help.  
  
"It wasn’t my armor, I was wearing it while I was covering Tyler and Dillon while they worked."  
  
"Make all the excuses you want, I know it was you. But instead of running here and crying my eyes out I went and got even."  
  
Aaron's eyes narrowed "What do you mean by 'even'?"  
  
Rebecca smiled victoriously "I fucked Wade."  
  
The room went deathly quiet as Dillon, John and Tyler kept glancing between Rebecca,  
Aaron and Wyatt who was still trying to stop coughing.  
  
"Rebecca." Wyatt said "It wasn’t Aaron fucking Victoria. That was me." He finished his statement between coughing fits he was starting to get control of.  
  
"Your just trying to cover for him." Rebecca said.  
  
"No, I was fucking Tori, that armor belonged to Billy and she was going to put it in those boxes to give to Aaron. I showed up while she was packing it away and things developed and she dropped everything near the door." Wyatt persisted.  
  
"It's true that Aaron was with us earlier for nearly an hour." Dillon said. "Wyatt did go over to Victoria's because he said his side hurt."  
  
Rebecca stared at Dillon. He and Aaron had been at odds recently over Wade. They hadn’t really been friends to begin with and Dillon had no reason to really cover for Aaron. Suddenly she did feel so certain of herself and that mind may have projected a few things in order to convince her that it had been Aaron fucking Tori.  
  
The door opened behind Rebecca as Victoria walked inside. Rebecca wheeled on her instantly.  
  
"Who were you fucking earlier?!" Rebecca exclaimed.  
  
Victoria recoiled as the unexpected question hit her before she had even made five steps into the room. "What?"  
  
"Answer the fucking question! Who were you fucking?"  
  
Victoria looked at her friend "I was fucking Wyatt."  
  
Rebecca's face fell and she could feel every set of eyes fall on her. She began breathing rapidly as she fully realized what she had just done. She had just announced to an entire room filled with people that she had cheated on Aaron after seeing him fucking her friend, only to find out Aaron hadn’t been fucking anyone.  
  
"Everyone out." Aaron said slowly. His voice had taken on the menacing tone that usually came on when he was extremely pissed.  
  
Everyone rose in unison and disappeared outside quickly leaving Aaron and Rebecca alone. Rebecca finally turned around to face Aaron and she didn’t like the look on his face. He looked murderous.  
  
"Aaron I'm so-"  
  
"Shut up." He growled. "You've got two minutes to pack your shit and get out of here."  
  
"Aaron please just listen to me for one second."  
  
"One minute, fifty-six seconds." Aaron said. "You better start packing because after your two minutes is up you are going out the door either under your own power or on your ass, I don’t care which. If you don’t have anything packed then that's tough for you because you wont be coming back in here to get anything at all."  
  
"Please what about Kayli?"  
  
"She isn’t mine, she isn’t my problem and this is all on you anyway. When she asks why you're leaving here, you should probably tell her it's because your a worthless cheating whore."  
  
Rebecca just stared at him with her mouth hanging open. She didn’t know what to say. Aaron looked at his wrist watch.  
  
"One minute twenty-five seconds."  
  
Rebecca waited briefly but walked over to the bedroom she had used to share with Aaron and began packing. It didn’t take her long but she still flinched when Aaron appeared in the doorway.  
  
"Times up." he said "You going out on your own or am I going to have to remove you?"  
  
"Aaron please don’t do this." She cried "Where am I supposed to go?"  
  
"Try staying at Wade's." Aaron snarled "I don’t fucking care where you go. You and me are through."


	11. Chapter Eleven: Execution [part one]

## Chapter Eleven: Execution [part 1]

Aaron slammed the door behind Rebecca as she barely crossed over the threshold. He turned around and stared into the empty living room feeling his heart hammer in his chest both enraged and in pain. The moment his eyes came to rest on the wall opposite him his reaction was instant. His fist balled up and his arm reared back and he threw the solid fist against the stucco and drywall, leaving a crater the size of a small melon.

Aaron leaned himself against the wall and began breathing heavily as he fed off of the pain that raced from his bleeding knuckles, up his arm and into the pain receptors in his brain. He tried to wrap his mind around how his life could go from being a fucked up mess before the outbreak, to be almost normal a month after the outbreak, and then being more fucked up than it ever had been a month after that. He didn’t believe in karma or shit like that but at that moment Aaron couldn’t decide if there was some all-powerful-force working against him, testing him.

So many things had happened in less than two days and Aaron doubted he’d ever be able to ever look Rebecca in the same light again. He had no idea she would have become so paranoid and possessive over him that she would think he had been cheating on her and then cheat on him and then blatantly reveal it in front of several others in the group. Her goal had been to humiliate him, but ultimately she had only humiliated herself and Aaron didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for the woman.

In actuality he felt far more worse about the deal Kayli had been given. He had told the little girl he was going to stick with her and Rebecca for as long as he possibly could. Turned out that he could only do it for just over twenty-four hours before throwing in the towel. Aaron couldn’t have the relationship with Kayli that he wanted, to have a relationship with Kayli meant having to have one with Rebecca and Aaron was done with that.

It was a shame that the one person who was truly innocent in all of this was actually the one paying for the actions of others.

Aaron shut his eyes tightly and slowly massaged his knuckles. He needed to forget about Rebecca and Kayli but he didn’t know how to do that. What he really needed at that moment was a nice solid drink. His head slowly turned towards the hallway and Billy’s room at the end of it. Aaron began walking down the hallway and opened the door. It was only the second time he had been in the room since Billy had died.

It was dark and had taken on a musty smell but Aaron ignored the stench and moved quickly to the bed. He dropped down onto all fours and stuck his large arm under the bed. The threat of getting his arm stuck was a very real one because there wasn’t much clearance between the bottom of the bed and the top of his arm. He felt the edge of a cardboard box brush against his fingers and he tried to inch his arm a little further under the bed. His fingers finally made purchase on one of the box’s lips and he began pulling his arm back out from under the bed.

He rose up to his knees and looked down at the box as it’s contents jingled gently as he finally removed it from under the bed. Aaron counted at least five bottles of alcohol stashed in the box, some of them full and some of them almost full. He had known Billy had been squirreling away his finds, but he hadn’t known his friend had managed to scrounge up so much of it. Without bothering to look at any of the labels on the bottles Aaron grabbed one, unscrewed the top and began drinking.

He didn’t take small sips or pause at all, he just lifted the bottle and drank. The burning in his throat barely registered as he repositioned himself so he was sitting with his back against the edge of the bed. He shut his eyes and didn’t try to stop the tears from forcing their way out from under his eyelids as he let the burning overtake him.

____________________

 

Rebecca couldn’t find the words to describe what she was feeling as she walked across the courtyard towards the condo she had shared with Victoria and the two small girls. She didn’t know whether Victoria would let her stay or not after being accused of sleeping with Aaron. Rebecca tried to rethink all of the things that had led her to believe Aaron had cheated on her. Only now did she realize just how paranoid she had been about the relationship Aaron and Victoria had shared.

She just came to the realization too late.

It was hard to say which made her feel worse: Accusing Aaron of cheating or revealing that she had cheated on him out of spite in front of almost all the other men in the camp. Tyler and John were standing near the maintenance shed talking quietly. Rebecca noted them out of the corner of her eye. They were eyeing her over as she walked and she didn’t bother acknowledging them. All she wanted to do was get to a bed and fall asleep and end the worst day in her entire life.

She opened the door to Victoria’s condo and walked into the living room. Victoria was seated on the couch by herself and she looked up at Rebecca with an expression that was more disappointed than angry or upset. Rebecca dropped her bag on the floor near the couch and collapsed into the cushions.

“Kayli and Trina are upstairs.” Victoria said “I told them to go to bed early tonight.”

Rebecca didn’t say anything and just stared straight ahead at the wall.

“Kayli wanted to know why she was staying here tonight instead of Aaron’s place and I told her she was going to have to talk to you about that.”

Rebecca closed her eyes and felt even worse. She hadn’t considered what this would do to Kayli. That girl adored Aaron and he adored her. Rebecca had probably just demolished that relationship beyond repair. Victoria seemed to be able to assume what Rebecca was thinking about.

“Yeah, didn’t really think how the fallout of from your little plan would impact some of the rest of us.”

This time Victoria’s voice had a little bite to it.

“Go ahead and say whatever you want.” Rebecca said quietly “Aaron sure did.”

“I don’t blame him.” Victoria said turning her body towards her friend. “How could you ever think he would do something like that, let alone with me?!”

“I wasn’t thinking straight, Aaron wouldn’t talk to me about Billy but he had no problem discussing things with you. We weren’t getting along that well and I interpreted the things I was seeing and hearing the wrong way.” Rebecca said still keeping her gaze pointed at an interesting spot on the wall.

“Why Wade?”

“I knew that would hurt Aaron, that’s what I wanted.”

Victoria nodded her head and looked down at her feet and sighed “Well I’d be willing to bet that you succeeded in hurting him. We’ll just have to wait and see how much that’s going to hurt the group.” She stood up “I guess you’ll be staying here for a while?”

Rebecca finally made eye contact with Victoria “If it’s ok with you.”

“I should toss you out, but I’m not going to do that.”

“Thank you.”

Victoria started walking towards the hallway that lead to her bedroom “But make no mistake about why I’m letting you stay. I’m doing it for Kayli, not you.”

Rebecca watched Victoria disappear around the corner.

“What the fuck am I going to tell Kayli?” She whispered to herself as she reclined her head against the cushion.

____________________

 

Dillon had knocked on the front door of his own condo at least seven times and had been on the verge of booting it in before Wade finally unlocked and opened it. The moment the door had opened an inch Dillon threw himself against it and slammed the solid wooden structure against the side of Wade’s head causing the man to fall backwards. Dillon slammed the door shut behind him as he stood over his fellow Army Ranger.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Dillon yelled at Wade. “I told you to stay the fuck away from her, that she was already taken and now you’ve caused a real big fucking problem.”

“The hell are you talking about?” Wade said rubbing the side of his as he climbed to his feet.  
Dillon shoved him back down.

“You don’t get up until I tell you to.” Dillon growled.

“What the fuck Sarge? I’ve been here all day and I haven’t done shit.”

Dillon shook his head “You fucked Rebecca!”

Wade smiled “Is that what you’re so pissed about? I got some ass and you didn’t?”

Dillon pulled his sidearm from it’s holster and made sure Wade saw it. “I told you she was off limits.”

Wade’s face adopted a serious expression as he eyed the silenced pistol in his friend’s hand. “She came over here and practically tackled me, whatever you think I did it happened because she wanted it to.”

“You should have said no.”

“I wasn’t going to turn away a guaranteed thing.”

“Just for one second stop thinking about yourself and think about the people around you. You just caused a big problem between Aaron and Rebecca, something we don’t need right now. If Aaron falls apart because of what you did, the group as a whole is going to suffer because of it.”

“If he falls apart it’s because he doesn’t know how to hold on to a woman.”

Dillon cocked his pistol “Damn it Wade fucking listen to me, Aaron is and important part of this group. Everyone looks at him as a leader even though we have James.”

“We don’t need Aaron.”

“Yes we do.”

Wade gave Dillon a disgusted look “I’m not going to apologize for anything I’ve done. She came here. She told me what she was here for. Don’t blame me for your fucking boy scout friend getting a little upset because his girl decided to step out on him.”

Dillon stared down at Wade and didn’t recognize the person that he saw. “What the fuck happened to you Wade?”

“The world changed Sarge. It’s not about looking out for others anymore, it’s all about what you can do for yourself first.”

Dillon sighed and holstered his gun “I know.”

He extended his hand down and helped Wade to his feet.

____________________

 

**_Two days later_**  
“How’s he doing?” Victoria asked as she skewered a piece of her chopped up hot dog on the plastic fork she was holding. She tried to hold on to the scent of the cooked meat for as long as possible, it made her feel normal again. She was grateful that Dillon had made a small fire pit for them to cook with.

Wyatt shook his head “Not good, he’s been drinking heavily for the last couple days.” He hadn’t touched his plate of food at all.

His wounds had healed considerably in the last four days. He was able to walk around without needing help from someone else and the pain from his injured ribs had come down to a manageable level.

“Drinking?” Victoria asked. “As in alcohol?”

“Yeah, don’t know where he got it from.”

“I do.” Victoria sighed. “Billy put together a small stash of booze he’d found on his runs. I told him I didn’t want it here around the girls.”

“So he stashed it over there.”

“He must have.”

“What a fucking mess.”

Victoria nodded. “Just goes to show you how much the perceptions of one person can fuck up everything else.”

“Think he’ll bounce back?”

“I’ve only known him for barely a month, but we’ve been through some fucked up things in that small amount of time. Considering all the stuff Aaron went through before the Turn, this thing with Rebecca could very well be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“We can’t just let him drink himself to death.” Wyatt’s voice was understandably frustrated.

“Tyler’s with him right? So Aaron will be fine for now.”

“You aren’t the one who has to go back and watch a good man destroy himself. I cant do it anymore.”

“It isn’t your fault Wyatt.”

“I know but I still feel responsible, Rebecca mistook me for Aaron.”

“Forget about it, we cant change it we just have to live with the aftermath her decision created.”

“No, I have to do something.” Wyatt dropped his plastic fork and plate on the table and shook his head. “It’s the alcohol that’s the problem. I need to take it from him.”  
Victoria put her food down as well and sat back in her chair. “What if he doesn’t want to give it up?”

“I’ll take it by force then.”

“Yeah, even in a drunken state I’m pretty sure Aaron will be able to kick your ass.”

Wyatt gave her an unamused look. “I’m not afraid of getting an ass kicking if it removes Aaron from the destructive path he’s heading down.”

“I’m afraid he’ll give you more than an ass kicking,” Victoria’s voice was layered with concern.  
“You aren’t healed fully.”

Wyatt considered this for a few moments. “It doesn’t matter. I have to do this. You go check on Kayli and Trina, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Please don’t do anything stupid.” Victoria pleaded.

Wyatt rose up from the small table in Victoria’s kitchen and headed for the door without saying a word. He still needed to come up with a plan, Victoria was right that Aaron wasn’t going to be a push over even in his drunken state. He was going to need some extra muscle if he was going to get anywhere with his current task. He walked over to the front gate and found Mendoza seated in his usual perch.

“Don’t you ever come down from there?”

Mendoza looked down at Wyatt “Sometimes.”

“Mind giving me a hand with something?”

“What?”

“Aaron’s been drinking heavily for the last few days and it’s not good. I’m going to try and get the booze from him but I might need some help.”

Mendoza looked back out to the abandoned streets on the other side of their gate and then back at Wyatt. The marksman nodded his head and climbed down out of his perch.

“If Aaron decides to not give up his booze, what do you plan on doing?”

“You hold him down while I take the booze.” Wyatt said having full confidence in his plan.  
Mendoza didn’t share that confidence. He was far from being a small man but he wasn’t anywhere near the same size as Aaron. “We might need a little more muscle.”

“John!” Dillon called across the courtyard.

He was walking towards Wyatt and Mendoza from the maintenance shed with the inventory pad in his hand.

“Yeah Dillon?” Mendoza said back.

“I’ve got a few more repairs and upgrades to make on the front gate. Mind doing inventory today?”

“Sorry, I’ve already got another job to do right now.”

Dillon looked at Wyatt and back to Mendoza “Yeah and what’s that?”

“We’re going to stop Aaron from drinking himself to death.”

“That’s what he’s been doing for the last few days? Drinking?”

Wyatt nodded his head.

“Damn it.” Dillon stormed off towards Aaron’s condo without another word. Mendoza and

Wyatt had to jog to catch up with him. “Is the door unlocked?”

“Yes, my brother is in there keeping an eye on him.”

Dillon was muttering something under his breath that neither Wyatt or Mendoza could make out. The Army Ranger burst through the front door of the condo causing Tyler to jump off the couch and rise to his feet.

“Where is he?” Dillon demanded more than he asked.

“In his room, drinking again.” Tyler said.

Dillon moved to Aaron’s bedroom door and found it to be locked. He brought his fist down on the door several times making a thunderous clunking sound. “Open the door Aaron or I’m going to break it down.”

“Fuck off.” was the reply.

Dillon grunted and looked over his shoulder at Mendoza and the Locke Brothers. “You three stay right behind me and we’ll swarm him.”

The three men nodded their heads. Dillon took three deep breaths before planting his foot against the door, sending it flying inwards into Aaron’s room. Dillon was already rushing into the room before the doorway had opened up fully. Aaron was slow to respond, but not as slow as he should have been. He managed to connect his fist with the side of Dillon’s jaw which dazed the Army Ranger for a few moments. The next thing Dillon was aware of was the sound of a ceramic lamp being broken over his back, knocking him flat on the ground.  
Mendoza, Wyatt and Tyler all tackled Aaron at once and dropped him to the ground.

“Aaron stop fighting, we’re trying to help you.” Wyatt said.

“Fuck you!” Aaron yelled and drove the back of his head up into the bridge of Wyatt’s nose which erupted in a steady stream of blood. Wyatt fell backwards off the dog pile on the floor clutching his face. Aaron began throwing elbow after elbow into Mendoza’s stomach and to his credit Mendoza didn’t release what little grip he had on his teammate. Aaron somehow managed to start rising up to his knees despite having two full grown men trying to hold him down on the ground.

“Come on just give it up man, we’re your friends.” Mendoza said as he tried to force Aaron back on his stomach.

“I don’t have any friends!” Aaron yelled.

Dillon had climbed back up to his feet and brought the butt of his pistol down on the back of Aaron’s head, making the alcohol fueled man drop to the ground.

“Tyler go get a set of zip-tie restraints from his equipment bag in the closet.” Dillon said breathing heavily. “Mendoza get the alcohol and dispose of it, throw it over the wall from your perch.”

Aaron was still awake. He was lying on the floor breathing heavier than anyone else and was staring straight out the doorway, he had no more will to fight. There was a gentle clanking as Mendoza collected the bottles of alcohol. Tyler fidgeted around in the closet for a few moments and finally found a pair of the zip-tie cuffs and handed them to Dillon. Dillon made sure the ties were secured around Aaron’s wrist before he had Tyler help him hoist the large up and carried him out into the living room.

He dropped Aaron down on the couch on his side and tapped him on the shoulder. “No hard feelings about the lamp, this is for your own good.”

“I’m not worth the effort.” Aaron said.

“I don’t believe that. Neither do Mendoza or the Locke brothers otherwise we wouldn’t have done what we just did.”

Aaron didn’t even try to look at him.

“It’ll get better Aaron. Trust me I know.”

Wyatt approached Dillon. His nose was bleeding steadily. “Give me that inventory pad.”  
Dillon handed it over without question and Wyatt disappeared out the door an instant later. Wyatt burst through Victoria’s front door feeling more pissed off than he had been when he had left.

“Oh my God what happened to your nose?” Victoria exclaimed.

“Aaron headbutted me.”

Rebecca appeared from out of the kitchen.

“You! Get over here!” Wyatt said pointing at her.

Looking visibly frightened Rebecca slowly walked over to Wyatt. Victoria stepped in between them slightly but there would be little she could do to stop Wyatt from doing anything to Rebecca.

“What?” Rebecca asked nervously.

Wyatt shoved the inventory pad into her chest forcing Rebecca back a few paces “Get to work and make yourself fucking useful.” he growled before sitting down on the couch and pinching his nose.

Rebecca looked at Victoria who only shrugged and grabbed some paper towels to tend to Wyatt’s bleeding nose.

Rebecca walked out of the condo feeling shaken by the way Wyatt had spoken to her. She had never done inventory before and wasn’t sure if there was a system that had to be followed. So she flipped through the previous pages and groaned as she noted that most of them had been done in Aaron’s handwriting. Rebecca noticed immediately that there were several different types of ammunition listed on the different inventory pages. Rebecca didn’t know anything about guns and hoped that the boxes would be labeled.

She found herself standing before the maintenance shed all too soon and just stood staring at the metal door.

“Cant find the key?”

Rebecca winced at the voice. “Go away Wade, I’m not in the mood to be dealing with you.”

“That’s no way to be talking to your boyfriend.” Wade said making a tssking sound.

“You’re not my boyfriend.” Rebecca said sternly as she found the key to the shed on a hook on the side of the shed.

“Sure didn’t seem that way a few days ago when you were all over me.”

“That was a mistake.” Rebecca sighed. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Wade stared at the back of her head for a few moments and then looked around the courtyard to make sure it was empty. The padlock on the door clanked as Rebecca unlocked it and pulled the door open. Wade pushed her through the shed entrance and promptly shut the door behind him while pulling his gun at the same time. It didn’t take Rebecca long to figure out what was happening.

“Wade please don’t,”

“Shut up.” Wade hissed as he pointed his gun at her. “You so much as make a sound without my permission and I’ll kill you, you call for help and I will kill you. Nod if you understand.”  
Rebecca nodded her head.

“Good, you belong to me now. You don’t get to give me a small taste and then just cut me off. It doesn’t work like that. If you don’t give me what I want then I’m going to take it. If it’s not from you fine, I’ll kill you now and take what I want from your friend Tori or those two girls you have running around here.”

“You touch them and you’re dead.” Rebecca said furiously. She couldn’t help but feel a very real fear creep into her chest.

Wade backhanded Rebecca but she didn’t cry out. She had a lot of experience with this sort of thing.

“I didn’t say you could speak.” He turned her around and forced her up against the wall “You just do what I tell you and I promise to make this as painless as possible.”

Rebecca didn’t believe that one bit and couldn’t help but start to shake as she heard the sound of his belt and zipper being undone. She yelp involuntarily when his hands began working on her own pants and he shoved her hard up against the wall.

“What did I tell you?”

She sucked in a ragged and scared breath as he undid her pants and let them drop to the floor.

All Rebecca could do was close her eyes and wait for it to be over.

____________________

 

**_The next day_ **

Aaron couldn’t recall ever feeling as shitty as he did at that particular moment. His head was on the verge of exploding and his mouth tasted what he imagined a backed up toilet tasted like. His whole body ached as pulled himself up into a sitting position on the couch. Wyatt had removed the zip-ties from around Aaron’s wrist early on in the morning and had said there was no hard feeling about the busted nose, much like Dillon had with the lamp.

Aaron hadn’t said much other than he just wanted to sleep and be alone, and as Aaron looked around it seemed that the Locke brothers had decided to give him his wish and had vacated the premises for the moment. Aaron really wanted a strong cup of hot coffee, or anything to wash the taste out of his mouth, but there wasn’t anything. He was just going to have to sit there and suffer through it.

He was good at that.

He spent the first hour or so of his day just sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. It had to be after six o’clock at night because the sky was starting to darken.

“Ah fuck.” He sighed.

He wasn’t tired and didn’t feel like lying awake in a pitch black house for the entire night. There was a gentle series of knocks on the door, but they still sent lances of pain racing through his forehead. He figured it was Wyatt or Tyler trying to get back in after accidentally locking the door on their way out. He groaned as he pulled himself off the couch and head to the door. There were a few more knocks on the other side before Aaron unlocked the door and opened it. His blood instantly boiled after he realized who was on the other side.

“What the fuck do you want?” Aaron asked Rebecca.

“Please just listen to me for a second I need a favor from you.”

Aaron shook his head “You’re fucking unbelievable. Why should I do anything more for you?”

“Please, don’t walk away from me right now I don’t know how long I have before he realizes I’m gone.” Rebecca said looking over her shoulder.

She seemed highly agitated and hyper-alert as if she was searching for some kind of threat that Aaron couldn’t see. It unnerved him. While she was craning her neck around Aaron thought he saw something that looked like finger impressions on her neck. He tried to forget that he saw them. Whatever trouble Rebecca had got herself into she was going to have find her own way out of it this time.

“What do you want?”

“Please take Kayli.”

“No.”

“Aaron you don’t understand, you need to take Kayli she is safer with you. I can’t protect her.  
Please take her.” Rebecca pleaded. She even went as far as stepping over the threshold of the doorway and grabbing his forearm. Aaron shook her loose.

“She is your little girl, not mine. I’m not going to take responsibility for her.”

“He’ll kill her Aaron, please take her. He already threatened her, please don’t let him hurt her.”

Aaron had little trouble figuring out who ‘he’ was.

“That’s all on you Rebecca.” Aaron said as he started shutting the door.

Rebecca put her foot in the way stopping him from shutting the door in her face.

“If you like that foot you better move it out of the way.” Aaron growled.

“I’m sorry Aaron, I messed up and it is my fault but I know somewhere deep inside that you care about her just as much as I do. Don’t punish her for my mistake.” Rebecca was openly crying now and made to attempt to hide it from him. “Please take her.”

Aaron stared at her. After what she had done to him he thought he would have found some satisfaction in her current predicament. But instead he felt pity for Rebecca Ames.

“Fine, but only for a few days. Then I’m shipping her off to Wyatt or Mendoza.” Aaron sighed.

“Thank you.” Rebecca said quietly. She looked over her shoulder and whistled and Kayli materialized next to her a few seconds later. Rebecca knelt down and gave the small girl a hug. “Be a good girl for Aaron ok?”

“Ok.” Kayli said. She sounded sad and released her own arms from around Rebecca a few seconds after Rebecca released her hug.

Rebecca stood up and slowly turned Kayli in Aaron’s direction and gave her a gentle shove.  
Aaron stepped aside and Kayli walked into the condo.

“This is the last favor you get Rebecca.” Aaron said after Kayli had climbed onto the couch and out of earshot.

“I know. Promise you’ll keep her safe.” Rebecca said staring past Aaron and over at Kayli.

“I will.” Aaron said.

Rebecca gave him a sad look that seemed to have a touch of finality to it and she turned and walked away. Aaron shut the door and turned around to see Kayli crying silently on the couch, swinging her feet idly.

“She doesn’t want me anymore does she?” Kayli said in a defeated manner.

Aaron shook his head. He wasn’t feeling up to dealing with these type of questions right now.

“Look Kayli I don’t feel very good right now so could you please just be quiet for now.”

The little girl sighed and looked down at her feet looking more downtrodden than ever. Aaron walked over and removed her backpack and set it on the table. It seemed to be getting progressively lighter every time he picked it up. Kayli was staring down at the ground but her gaze was more of that of a person who was staring off into space. She was still crying freely but not making any noise. That bothered Aaron more than anything else for some reason. He remembered he scrounged up a decent stash of those cinnamon-brown sugar Pop-Tarts from his MREs that Kayli seemed to love.

He went over to his equipment bag in his room and grabbed one of the foil wrapped packages and returned to the living room. He sat down on the couch next to Kayli and handed her the Pop-Tart. She stared at it for a few seconds and shook her head finally.

“You don’t want it?”

She shook her head again.

“I’ve never seen you turn one of these down before.”

“I’m not hungry, I’m too sad to eat.”

Aaron reclined his head against the couch cushion behind him and rolled his eyes. It appeared that the problem wouldn’t go away on it’s own and he was going to have to deal with it.

“Rebecca loves you Kayli, she just thinks you will be safer here for the moment.” Aaron said tiredly. “I’m sure you’ll be back with her in no time.”

“Are we going to come back here with you?”

“No.” Aaron said after thinking about how he should answer Kayli. He deiced the truth was the best option.

“I don’t like Wade.”

Aaron put his arm around Kayli and pulled her towards him “I don’t like him either Kayli. I really don’t.


End file.
